Chasing the Sun
by K-yers
Summary: Diana McCall volunteered for the Army to escape her overbearing family. Next thing she knows, she's jumping out of planes and into enemy territory. As a combat medic, she is sent to the front lines with the newfound Easy Company, and with them she'll find herself apart of a bond that no war could tear apart. Eventual Liebgott/OC.
1. 1: Remembering

**A/N: Hello! I'd like to say before we begin that I will be writing the characters in this story as how they're depicted in the show, not how they are in reality. The story's rating might go up from T to M, due to some later chapters, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I'll be taking inspiration from the HBO series, Don Malarkey's book _Easy Company Soldier_, and Stephen Ambrose's book _Band of Brothers_. Other than that, I hope you guys enjoy this story and thanks for clicking on it.**

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><p>My reflection in the mirror was unrecognizable, I thought. My skin had turned pale white and I could easily count the small blue veins in my face. This is what old age did to you; you became someone you wouldn't normally recognize. My hair had turned from light auburn to snow white, and my calloused hands were frail and wrinkled. Old age had taken my eyelashes and a few patches of hair was missing; despite the fact that I had tried to hide it, the odd stump of my ear was now visibly to anyone who looked at the right side of my face. My back was bent so I was now even smaller than I had been in my youth.<p>

A coughing fit sent me doubling over and I pulled the handkerchief away from my mouth to see the small specks of blood. Damn lung cancer...

"Grandma?" The voice of my granddaughter came in through the hospital door. "Are you alright? Could you open the door?" I stiffly walked over to the door and opened it, revealing my twenty-three year old granddaughter named Emma. She was the youngest daughter of my youngest son, Bennett. Her hazel eyes were wide with worry but I shrugged the young girl off of me and I managed to shuffle to my bed. Emma helped me get back into bed and I sighed with relief at getting off of my feet.

"While you were in there, you got a call from a man named Don Malarkey," Emma said. "He said that he's coming tomorrow." I smiled at the thought of my old friend coming to see me. "I take it by the smile on your face, you know him?"

I let out a small laugh that turned into a painful fit of coughing. When I finished, I put the bloody tissue in the nearby trash can and looked at Emma. "He's one of my oldest friends. It figures that he's see me when I needed him."

Emma watched me cautiously, as if she wasn't sure if she should continue or not. "Can I ask how you know him?"

"Well, since you just did," I said gruffly. "He's one of my closest friends from the war."

"The war?"

"World War Two." I said, saying the name as the faces of all of my old friends flashed through my mind. I brushed my eyes at the thought of all of my closest friends gone. "I hate that damned war," I said bitterly. Emma's eyes widened at my profanity. "But in the end, I guess I have to thank God it happened, because it led me to the greatest men I've ever known."

"Dad never said anything about that," Emma said with wide eyes. "I never would've guessed you were actually there."

"Bennett knew the topic was a sore one," I said. "He never would've told you or your siblings unless he knew I wanted you all to know." I paused and raised my brow at her. "I'm missing an ear; how did you not guess?"

"Dad threatened us never to mention it. He said we'd get in big trouble if we did." Emma said, laughing slightly and glancing at the stump that was my right ear. "So that's how you know Mr. Malarkey?"

I snorted. "Don't call him that to his face. That man hates feeling like an old man." I paused. "There aren't many of us left. I think there's probably four left if you include me. I keep in touch with most of them, but Malark and I always talk to one another at least three times a week."

"I didn't know women were on the front lines during that war."

I snorted again. "The families of the women who fought were so mortified they didn't really talk about it. My own mother made some lie about how I went to be a volunteer nurse in New York; near the boys but not in any kind of danger. Mind you, there weren't a lot of women on the front lines; I only met one who was going there, but she was going to the Pacific; I was in Europe. Those who were out there with the boys were either shunned or protected by their comrades."

Emma leaned forward. "Could you tell me about it?" I looked over at her and blinked. "Could you tell me about your service?" She repeated.

I felt my eyes slide out of focus as I tried to find a good place to start. "It's a long story." I said simply.

Emma checked her watch. "I'm here 'till seven tonight."

"I mean it's a really long story," I said again. Emma still looked eager to hear. "I'm dying of lung cancer. I know that for a fact. That Kraut doctor of mine told me that I barely have a few weeks left. I might as well tell someone the whole thing." I paused, thinking back and trying to find a good place to start. "I don't where to begin."

"You volunteered right?" Emma asked. "Why not there?"

I thought about it for a beat. "My mother set up my older sister's wedding. She met with some other socialite from the town, got their kids together and they got married after knowing one another for about two months. She wanted to do the same to me. I went to a church in our town, praying that God would show me a different way or if He could make my mother understand that marriage wasn't for me yet. The very next day, a booth went up right outside the church, asking for volunteers for the Army. I volunteered in a heartbeat, knowing that that was the sign I'd been waiting for. It was enough for my mother to cut me out of the family entirely." My voice drifted off before I managed to pull myself back. "My sisters and I were expected to be the image of our mother; graceful and poised, sophisticated and soft-spoken. She wanted us to marry nice, Catholic boys and give her lots of grandchildren. Considering how I joined the Army without her permission, fought and bled my way through training, spoke like a sailor, and married a Jewish boy, I don't think I made her very proud right away.

"Like I said earlier, my mother told the town I went to New York to be a volunteer nurse." I said. "She had lost her brother to the first world war, so I don't blame her anymore for treating me so harshly. But I'll get to that later. I think I'll start with basic training, that in itself is one hell of a story.

"I trained in Georgia for almost two years, learning how to fire a rifle, how to survive off K rations, how to jump out of planes and into enemy territory, how to do anything the men could do." I continued. "I was a combat medic, so I also learned about all the field techniques and the right procedures to perform under pressure and how to save a man's life. I had already known a lot about medicine, but it took joining the Army for me to realize how little I knew about healing."

Emma was hanging on to every word I was saying. I smiled to myself. "Enough of that; I'm gonna tell you about my journey from Camp Toccoa to Europe. War is hell, and I saw death every day I was out there. But those men were my brothers, my comrades, and this is the story of how we went through hell together."


	2. 2: Underestimated

I stood at attention along with the rest of Easy Company. Sobel was pacing around, yelling at men who were not up to his standards, usually this meant he liked to scream in my face for some new reason each day.

Sobel stopped his pacing right in front of me. "McCall," He snapped. I stared straight ahead and addressed him as sir. Sobel scoffed. "I see your hair is still sticking out from under your helmet. Your hair's too long; your weekend pass is revoked." Then he moved on. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stay perfectly still. Sobel didn't move around a lot before he was right back in my area, but this time he was harassing Malarkey, who stood right next to me. "Name, private!"

"Malarkey, Donald, sir!" Malarkey shot back.

"Isn't Malarkey slang for bullshit?"

"Yes sir,"

"Your boots aren't properly bloused, Private Bullshit; your weekend pass is revoked." He stalked away. He stood at the front of the company, glaring at each and every one of us. "Anyone who had a weekend pass just lost it. All weekend passes are hereby revoked. Now go get into P.T gear; we're running Currahee in four minutes!"

The second we were dismissed, everyone broke into a sprint back to the barracks to get changed into P.T gear. I found myself at the rear of the group in no time, my shorter legs not being able to keep up with the men who completely towered over me. I managed to keep close behind them though, and by the time I got inside the barracks, most of them were already by their bunks and stripping into their P.T clothes.

When I had first heard that I was sharing rooming quarters with the men, I had been terrified. Lieutenant Winters had told me that the only reason I'd be bunking with them is because I'd be in very close quarters with them later on. I took this reasoning and saw that it made sense, but that didn't stop me from being nervous about sleeping in close quarters with these guys I barely knew.

I moved silently to the back of the barracks, not making eye contact with any of the men. In response, they ignored me right back. I had been here at Camp Toccoa for three weeks already, and the men of Easy still treated me as a guest, someone who wouldn't make it in the end. Only a few of them talked to me, and those ones were asking me why I was even there.

Making it to my bunk in the back corner of the barrack, I sat down on the bunk with my back facing the men and threw my blanket around my shoulders. Using the blanket to shield myself as much as possible, I wriggled out of the oversized pants I was wearing and into the shorts, which were also a size or two too big. I raised the blanket over my head a bit and got out of the jacket and shirt and into the white, P.T shirt. When my body was covered again, I put the blanket back down and quickly tied my shoes and made the bed again as quickly as possible. Finally finished, I ran outside where most of the company was already gathered.

Sobel gathered everyone back into formation which landed me between Malarkey and Muck. And then we were running up the mountain that shadowed Camp Toccoa. As usual, the run started okay, everyone singing the Easy Company creed to keep in a rhythm. But about half a mile up, people started to become out of breath and start to lag. One of these people was me.

My breathing started to come out in ragged gasps, my heart throbbing painfully in my chest. On either side of me, Malarkey and Muck were starting to pull ahead. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to move faster, barely catching up to them. Muck accidentally twisted his ankle somewhere around the two mile marker; I tried to help him only for Sobel to swoop in, screeching that no one should help him.

The formation started to break away as the mountain got steeper. Some men pulled ahead of me, some glancing at me as they did while others completely ignored me. I could feel my legs shaking violently as the plaque at the top of the mountain came into view. A chain of men who had gotten there first had formed, pulling the people who needed it up to the top. I made it to the first man, an Italian named Guarnere. He narrowed his eyes at the sight of me and refused to help me up.

The next man, Martin, roughly grabbed my upper arm and shoved me up past him. A few other men tried to help me up but I shrugged them off; these men thought I didn't belong with them, and they were probably right. But it was only three weeks into training; I was going to be damned to hell before I let them know that they were right. I made it to the top of the mountain and I slapped my hand against the plaque before turning right around and scrambling back down to the main trail back to camp.

At the bottom of the mountain, several of the men were doubled over, panting. A few were lying sprawled on the ground, their chests rising and falling rapidly. I got to the edge of this group and dropped to my knees. Sweat dripped down my face and my tongue was completely dry. I glanced back up at Currahee, momentarily hating that mountain.

The last of the men ran back down the mountain, tailed by Sobel. He was making sure that no man lagged behind any longer than they had to. I shakily got back on my feet, not wanting him to see me have any kind of a breather. The other men around me must've thought the same thing because they stood up as well.

"Twenty-one minutes," Sobel shouted. "Twenty-one damn minutes; that's how long it took you all to get up that mountain and back. That's pitiful! You are supposed to be paratroopers! I will not take you sons of bitches into war with a run time like twenty-one minutes! We run the mountain again first thing tomorrow morning!" He paused as that news sunk in. "Obstacle course, now!"

On and on it went. We ran over to the obstacle course on the other side of camp and took turns climbing over walls, crawling through metal tubes that absorbed the Georgia sun's heat and burned our arms, and rolling underneath barbed wire pits. By the time physical training was done for the day, I was out of breath and dripping with sweat, as was everyone else. Then we were finally dismissed for the evening, free to wander the camp as we pleased.

Most of the men went to the showers first, causing me to go back to the barracks to wait for a chance to cleanse myself. I took the scenic route to the barracks, wandering past the mess hall and medic's tent. By the time I looped back around to the barracks, some of the men were back from the showers. I started to head back inside but stopped short when I heard my name.

"...McCall needs to go home," That was Guarnere. "I'm all for nurses and everything, but front lines isn't a place for a dame."

"I'm surprised she's still here," That sounded like Toye. "Honestly, I thought she's be gone by now."

I should've felt hurt, but the only feeling I really registered was anger. A fierce and wicked determination fired itself inside of me and I wanted nothing more than to prove those two-everyone in the company-wrong. I stalked into the barracks, silencing the conversation. Guarnere, Toye, Malarkey, and Muck were sitting on their bunks. They looked up when I entered.

Muck turned slightly red. "So, d'you guys think we'll get something edible for dinner tonight?"

Toye made some response that I didn't pay attention to. I just stalked past them, grabbed the set of relaxation clothes we'd all been given (again, a few sizes too big), and stalked past them again to head for the showers. They didn't talk much as I passed, but right before I left the room, Malarkey said, "I think she heard you."

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><p>The next day, after we raced to the top of the mountain again, there was a "special assessment". At least that's what Sobel called it. One by one, we'd have to go in front of him and the entire company to perform a certain amount of exercises: twenty-five pushups, twenty burpees, and twenty-five sit-ups. A twinge of nervousness hit me the second he announced this; I was already exhausted from the six mile run.<p>

As he always did, Sobel went in alphabetical order. I wouldn't have to go for quite a while, but I knew we wouldn't leave this field until everyone did their part. I noticed that some of the men didn't look worried. These were the men who were already built, the ones who could probably do these exercises in their sleep. As the line grew smaller, my heart started to beat harder. There was a crowd of the men who had already gone over on the side, watching quietly. Finally, it was Malarkey's turn, and I had to go to him when he did the sit-ups.

Sobel watched like a hawk while Malarkey got into the sit-up position. I got down on my knees right in front of Malarkey, firmly pressing my hands down on his toes. Malarkey glanced at me before at Sobel. Sobel narrowed his eyes at Malarkey, "Hurry it up, Private Bullshit." And with that, Malarkey started.

Twenty-five sit-ups went by in the blink of an eye and now it was my turn. As Malarkey walked over to the crowd of finished people, I stood up at attention in front of Sobel. "McCall, Diana, sir," I said in what I hoped was a strong voice. Sobel smirked at me slightly, as if laughing at me, and gave the order for me to start the push-ups. With my heart pounding, I got down into the position and started.

I had only gotten to five when Sobel crouched down lower. "Do us all a favor, McCall and quit. There won't be any more Currahee, no more P.T, no more lack of privacy that all women need."

I frowned; he hadn't tried this with any of the others. I made it to fifteen before my arms started to shake. Sobel's hawk eyes noticed and he got even louder so that the entire company could hear. "You're getting weaker, McCall. Say the word and you can go back home to your ivory tower and tea parties."

Twenty push-ups down and my arms were shaking violently. Sobel had gotten closer and was still yelling in my ear. "You can still go home, McCall! You can go home and pretend like none of this ever happened!" I kept my eyes trained on the grass as it would get closer and farther away. Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six...

When I got to thirty, I stopped the push-ups and quickly got to my feet to immediately start the burpees. Sobel rose up to his feet with me, still shouting for me to quit and go home. Out of the corners of my eyes, I could see the men on either side watching me. Once finished with an exercise, you were supposed to wait for Sobel to give the order for the next exercise. I got to five burpees before I really wanted to take up Sobel on his offer of letting me leave.

"You are the only one here who does not have to be here!" Sobel screamed, tiny droplets of saliva flying out from his mouth. "Why are you even here, McCall? Was Bridge Club too boring for you? Do you have a death wish? Are you secretly begging for a stray bullet to come out of nowhere and bury itself into your skull?"

I got to twenty-five burpees before I stopped, tears beginning to form in my eyes from the pain. I dropped to the ground, not even bothering to wait for Muck to come over and hold my feet down. I planted my feet as tightly as I could on the ground as I started the sit-ups, and I caught a glimpse of Muck beginning to come over to hold my feet down like he was supposed to.

"Do _not _come over here!" Sobel screamed at him. Muck halted and backed right back up into his place in line. My feet lifted slightly off the ground as I did my seventh sit-up, but I kept as low as I could before lowering myself back to the ground. Sobel glared down at me, looking crazy. "I think I know why you're here, McCall. You're here because you figured this would be the easiest way to find a husband, right? Why else would a nineteen year old from the middle of Alabama volunteer for the Army?"

I wanted to be the one to bury a bullet into Sobel's face, I thought with so much malice. Everything on my body hurt; arms, legs, shoulders, stomach. And though I forced myself to push on, I could feel myself start to slow down from sheer exhaustion and pain. I was at nineteen sit-ups and I wanted nothing more than to stop and admit to them that they were right about me being weak. But my stupid pride got in the way and I finished the sit-ups at twenty-two.

Sobel stopped ranting as I slowly got to my feet. I faced him at attention, waiting for him to dismiss me over to the crowd of people who had finished. Sobel locked eyes with me and for that moment, we were sizing each other up. Then he cleared his throat and spoke loud enough for the entire company to hear, "You disobeyed orders when you exceeded the amount of exercises. Your weekend pass for next week has been revoked." Then he jerked his head over to the side and I limped away from him and to the crowd of finished members of Easy.

Many of them were looking at me with raised eyebrows. When I passed Martin, he nodded to me with what seemed to be a sort of respect. I walked to the back of the crowd, not really wanting to watch the rest of the men go. With my knees bucking, I carefully sat down on the ground, my entire body aching. The hot sun beat down on me mercilessly. I don't know how long I was sitting there before large shadows blocked the sun from me. I looked up and saw Malarkey, Muck, and Guarnere standing there.

Muck and Malarkey sat down across from me, stretching their legs out and inspecting their toes. Guarnere squatted right next to me and looked at me cautiously. "I think we seriously underestimated you, McCall."

I glanced at him; that was the first time he had ever called me by my actual name. He stared at the grass, not meeting my eyes. I nodded at him. "I forgive you," I said quietly. Guarnere smirked a bit to himself. Malarkey and Muck smiled as well, and all four of us seemed to relax a bit. We sat that way and Toye came over to join us once he was finished with his own assessment. He gave me a slight jerk of his head, indicating some sort of newfound respect.

Though no one present that day would ever mention the harassment done by Sobel that day, I always saw it in their faces as the war kicked off for us. Every time I stubbornly kept up with their physical assessments, or every time I'd run into enemy fire to drag a wounded man back into safety, I saw that they knew I was thinking about that confrontation with Sobel. For that was the moment where some of the men realized that I had been severely underestimated. For me, that was the first moment I proved to myself that I belonged there with them.


	3. 3: Wrath

The next week, Sobel ranted about my hair again. Then he took away the entire company's weekend pass because of it. It seemed like he was trying to get the company against me again. Sadly, it was working; I was already getting heated looks.

"Get your damn hair in order, McCall!" Guarnere said loudly at me that evening at dinner. I'd been sitting with him, Toye, Malarkey and Muck (he kept trying to get me to call him Skip) lately. Other than Roe, the other medic of the company, they were the ones to seemed to like my company. I grabbed a lock of my hair and held it out, peering at it.

"It only goes to my shoulder," I said. "I got it cut this short before coming here."

"I think it needs to be short enough so that it can go under your helmet without any pieces coming out." Skip said, grabbing another lock and pressing his finger against it. "Maybe like right here." The place he was indicating was an inch above my shoulder.

I snorted. "I don't have a weekend pass." I pointed out. "I can't leave camp."

"Then do it here," Toye said while shoveling his asparagus into his mouth. "You've got scissors, don't you?"

"Get Liebgott to do it," Malarkey said. "He was a barber before he volunteered." I looked over Malarkey's shoulder to see where Liebgott was sitting. He was sitting with Luz, Perconte, and Martin. Malarkey glanced at Guarnere. "What's his price; fifteen cents?"

"Yeah, somethin' like that." Guarnere agreed through a mouthful of military meatloaf. "Go to Liebgott over the weekend. I'm sure he won't care." They seemed to agree on this situation without me, judging by the way they were talking. I rolled my eyes at them and ate a few bites of my meatloaf. The meal was a bland as it usually was. Most of the food here came from a can, so it wasn't even a surprise.

The next day was Sunday. After breakfast, we usually been allowed to go into the town nearby to do whatever we pleased. But since my hair situation had gotten everyone's passes taken away, we were forced to hang around the camp. Once we were finished with breakfast, I quickly showered and went off to go find Liebgott. My older sister, Mary, was a hair stylist back home and she always said that when hair was wet, it was easier to make a straight cut.

I found Liebgott standing outside the mess hall, smoking a cigarette. Exhaling heavily, I approached him cautiously. I had never actually spoken to him directly before, so this was probably going to be odd for him too. Liebgott looked up as I approached and he furrowed his brow a little. I cleared my throat once I was close enough.

"Um, Malarkey said you cut hair before you volunteered." I started. "D'you think you could take an inch off mine? It's only gonna get longer and that means our weekend passes are going to be all gone."

Liebgott blinked at me, the cigarette dangling lazily from his mouth. "I've never cut a girl's hair before."

"Honestly, I don't care." I said. "D'you want to stay in camp for another weekend?"

"Fine," He said with a snort. "Let me go get some scissors." With that said, he walked off towards the barracks. I followed, walking a few steps behind him. Liebgott looked over his shoulder at me a few times, but didn't bother to invite me to walk beside him. He disappeared into the barracks for a few seconds before coming back outside. "Where do you want to do this?"

I blinked; I hadn't thought about that. Liebgott read my mind and rolled his eyes before taking the lead over by the medical tent. He led me behind the tent and gruffly told me to wait there. He left for a minute before coming back with crate. He placed it back on the ground and gestured to it. "Sit."

I did as he said. Liebgott placed his fingertips lightly on the sides of my head, tilting it slightly. Liebgott carefully pulled my hair, seeing just how long it was. "How much you want off?"

"An inch,"

Before I could blink, I heard scissors snipping and a few locks of hair fell away. Liebgott moved fast, which made me sort of nervous. Not even five minutes went by before Liebgott had moved around my head, cutting away hair. He finished in no time and started gently slapping my shoulders and back, dusting off strands of hair. "Could you shake your head?" Feeling kind of silly, I did as he said. "Okay you can stop now."

"What was that for?" I asked.

"I wanted to see if you'd actually do it," Liebgott said without any hesitation. I looked up at him, frowning slightly. He smirked at me from behind the cigarette. I remembered the fifteen cents and pulled the coins out from my pocket. I tried to give it to him, but he just shook his head and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm not taking your money." He paused. "On second thought, I'll take it. Bull said there'll be a game of poker tonight. I need all the money I can get." He took the change and I stood up from the crate.

"Thanks again, Liebgott," I said, nodding at him.

"You're welcome, McCall," He replied, counting the money and putting it in his pocket. He let out a puff of smoke and nodded at me before following me out from behind the medical tent. "You plan on playing poker?"

I let out a huff of laughter without meaning to. "I can't play."

"Watch and learn," Liebgott countered. "If you're gonna be with us for the rest of this war, you might as well attempt to know us."

"Believe me, when it comes from a medical stand point, I know all of you guys."

"What d'you mean?"

"The first week of medic training was learning everyone's blood type, allergies, anything from a medical perspective." I explained. "Give me a name and I can list their medical background."

Liebgott gave me a side glance and smirked, puffing out cigarette smoke like a chimney. "Uh, try Winters."

"His blood's AB-Positive, and as far as I know he's not allergic to anything,"

"Try Luz,"

"Blood type is A, and he's allergic to peanuts. The least you could do is give me a hard one."

Liebgott narrowed his eyes for a brief moment, as if thinking about it. "Sobel,"

Without hesitation, I said, "He's A-Negative, and he's allergic to diary." Liebgott snorted again and gave me another side glance.

"The poker game's in the barracks after dinner. Just sit on the side lines and learn how to gamble like a man." Liebgott said. I laughed shortly at the phrase, "like a man". He smirked. We had walked all the way from the medical tent back to the barracks. I hadn't noticed that we had moved all the way across the camp together. Liebgott glanced down at me before heading back inside. "Thanks for the change, McCall." He said before disappearing inside.

* * *

><p>After dinner, every man of Easy crammed themselves into one area of the barracks to either participate or watch the poker game. A good percentage of the men were playing: Liebgott, Bull, Malarkey, Guarnere, and Toye were just a few. I caught sight of Luz, Perconte and Talbert all dealing themselves in. Men like Martin and Skip were on the sidelines, watching while making loud comments. Webster, on the other hand, was away from the crowd with a book in his hands.<p>

I managed to squeeze myself beside Skip, and we stood right behind Malarkey so that we could see his cards. As the game got ready to begin, the men threw their bets into the center of the two cots that had been pushed together to make a makeshift table. The pile was made up of coins, some crumpled dollar bills, packs of cigarettes, a few candy bars, there was even a small pile of stamps in there. The pile continued to grow until the last person (Talbert) threw in the last wad of dollar bills. Finally, it was time for the game to start.

I never understood poker, especially the way Easy Company played, and I never would understand the game. All I could really get out of it was someone would throw a card down, someone would either smirk in victory or groan in defeat. Skip tried to explain to me the game in an undertone, but majority of his voice was getting drowned out by the other voices of the men surrounding us, so I gave up.

The game was apparently almost over (or so Skip said) when Nixon barged into the barracks and got angry that we were up past curfew. "You have P.T first thing in the morning! Get your asses in bed before I report you to Sobel!" I thought that Nixon wouldn't bother going to Sobel about this, but everyone shrugged and went to their appropriate cots anyway.

After physical training the next day, the head medic of the camp called me and Roe over to the medical tent. Sobel looks pissed that we had to leave his torture early, but he let us go anyway.

The head medic's name was Unger; he had fought in the first world war, and he had gotten some scars on his face from it. He was a pretty good teacher, he taught me and Roe about the uses of sulfa powder and how to apply a proper battle dressing. He took us back to the medical tent and once we entered, I saw that all of the other medics at camp were there.

Unger got to the front of the group and turned around to face all of us. His dark eyes looked over us. "I'm sure you all remember the practice run I've organized for you all. That day is today."

I exchanged a glance with Roe, both of us knowing full well what Unger was talking about. About a week ago, Unger had spoken with Colonel Sink about having a practice run for the medics so we could practice bandaging wounds, improvising casts and splints, and so forth. Unger continued. "I've alerted all of your commanding officers about the run, and they will choose members of your company to be mock casualties. We shall begin at 0100 hours, so get back to your appropriate companies and be ready."

Roe and I headed back to Easy, not bothering to get back before we missed anything. Sobel would probably make us run an extra mile on Currahee because we were able to escape him for a few minutes. "You remember how to drive out infection?" Roe asked.

"Sulfa," I answered. "D'you remember how to tell if someone has shock from blood loss?"

We continued going back and forth all the way back to where Easy Company was finishing the obstacle course. Winters saw us before Sobel did and he walked straight over to us without alerting Sobel. When he was close enough, he asked, "I assume your meeting with Unger was about the mock aftermath."

"Yes sir," I said firmly. "Unger said that it'll start at 0100 hours."

Winters nodded. Sobel finally noticed us and shouted. "Roe! McCall!" He stalked over to us, leaving the company to confront us. Roe and I exchanged a quick glance before Sobel made it to us. Winters quickly explained the medic practice happening in an hour and Sobel glared at us, as if it was out fault that the medics had to have practice.

"I'm supposed to choose how many?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at the men. Lipton had them back in order and they were waiting at ease for the next set of orders.

"As many as you see fit, sir," Roe said.

An evil grin spread across Sobel's face. "Fine." He turned towards the men and then call out more than half of the entire company. I widened my eyes at him; from beside me, Roe looked shocked and outraged as well. The two of us were supposed to work together to treat men, not spread ourselves thin. This was just our first practice on the field.

Sobel turned back to us when he was finished. "I think that out to give you two enough practice." He turned back towards the men. "Fall in formation under Currahee! We're running up!"


	4. 4: Exit Wounds

Sobel had Easy spread so thin, Roe and I were forced to separate in order to properly get to each man. Roe took the left side of the woods and I took the right, heading off into the woods to find men to practice the medical techniques on. I quickly found Martin and Toye, patched up their fakes wounds before tagging them for stretchers. When I ran into Luz, he moaned and groaned as if he was in actual pain.

"My leg feels like it's on fire, McCall!" Luz shouted, letting out a loud screech that sounded like a strangled goose.

I pulled out an empty needle meant for morphine and jabbed him in the crook of his elbow with it. Luz let out a loud yelp before shutting up. I put a small piece of gauze on the needle prick and bandaged up where he was supposed to be hit on his leg. "There we go. Just keep it down and you'll be safe."

"Thank you, McCall," Luz said with a smirk. I tagged him for a stretcher before scrambling back off into the woods where I could hear other men calling out for a medic.

I made my way through the men, fixing them up and moving on to the next. They'd either keep quiet the entire time, or thank me and wish me luck as I continued to find more "injured" men. I had lost count of how many men I patched up before I came across Liebgott, who was sprawled out in a ditch and calling out for a medic. I scrambled down the hill towards him, silencing him as I skidded to a stop beside him.

"I've been shot twice in the chest," He explained. I nodded once before lifting him into a sitting position, pretending to check for exit wounds. "What're you doing?"

"Seeing if you have exit wounds," I explained.

"I don't think I do,"

"Okay then," I said quietly, remembering what to do next. I made him lean back against the side of the ditch and I moved to his other side to check where the pretend bullets went into his chest. I grabbed Liebgott's arm, throwing it onto my shoulder before undoing his shirt to check the wound.

"You do know there's nothing there, right?" Liebgott asked.

"I'm just doing what I'm supposed to," I said, setting a square of gauze onto his chest. When I was finished, I put his shirt back down and pulled out my iodine pencil. I got closer to his forehead and he moved away just a bit. I rolled my eyes at him. "The fact that you don't have an exit wound means that you could die. I use this to let the aid station know that you've been shot twice and that they're still in you."

Liebgott didn't move away this time when I wrote the letters "N.E.W" on his forehead. "What'd you write?" He asked, rolling his eyes upward.

"N.E.W, stands for no exit wound." I quickly explained. I could hear someone else a few yards away. I tagged Liebgott for a stretcher and darted off. He loudly said goodbye right as I got out of the ditch.

The practice lasted for about an hour until finally Roe and I treated the entire company. By the time we finished, we were both almost out of supplies, but everyone had been treated properly. As the last of Easy Company came out of the woods, Unger walked up to me and Roe and congratulated us on completing the task with flying colors. He then told us we'd be tested on different treatments the next day.

As Unger walked past Sobel, he stopped. "I'd have to say, Lieutenant Sobel; you have yourself two extraordinary medics here." Sobel blinked and Unger was gone before he could respond. Roe and I both straightened and turned back to look at our handiwork.

Our company had white bandages wrapped around arms and legs. They had patches of gauze everywhere. Some of them had our handwriting on their foreheads giving the fictional aid station details about whether a man received morphine, if they had exit wounds or not. I spotted Malarkey and Skip with matching "M"s on their foreheads; they were laughing about it. I was curious as to what injury Webster had, because his entire forehead was wrapped tightly with gauze.

That night after dinner, Roe and I went back and forth in the barracks, asking each other medical questions and then answering them. Several of the men would amuse themselves by watching us go back and forth. So we ended up having a large group made up of Malarkey, Skip, Guarnere, Toye, Liebgott, Luz, Perconte, Webster, Lipton, Hoobler, and Talbert.

"Protein deficiency can result in what conditions?"

"A medic may administer morphine to what kind of patients?"

"What is a recommended step in treating deep frostbite?"

"I understand everything they're saying," Liebgott said with a hint of sarcasm. A swell of laughter met his words and I found myself rolling my eyes at them all. Until it was time for light's out, everyone stayed surrounding our two bunks, listening to us quizzing each other back and forth.

* * *

><p>Time blended together into one endless parade of physical training, running up Currahee, medical training, bland meals, and overall physical pain. Around the end of September, I started to notice changes to my body. My stomach was now firm and my upper arms and legs were thicker with muscle. The looser skin underneath my jaw had tightened and the baby fat on my face was all but gone. Basic training was almost over, and I already looked like a completely different person.<p>

I had been writing letters to my fifteen year old sister, Elizabeth. Her letters could be summarized as "High school is dreadful. I hope you're doing okay in Georgia. Let me know if you meet any available men! I love you and miss you!"

Then again, my letters could be summarized as this: "Georgia is a lot like home: hot, humid, and rain that seems to make the heat even worse. If you think high school is rough, you should try this place. Most of the men here are available, but most of them also have girls back home or in town nearby, so don't get any ideas! I love and miss you too. Take care of home while I'm gone."

Around the end of November, Sink told us that basic would be finished in December. We'd be leaving Toccoa for Fort Benning, and there we would finally do what paratroopers were meant to do. We'd be able to jump out of those planes.

Everyone was eager to start flying, Malarkey even told us a story about how he once jumped off the roof of his house with only an umbrella. When Toye asked him why he would do that, Malarkey just shrugged and said that he thought he'd somehow be able to fly.

My birthday was the last day of November. I kept the knowledge to myself, not trusting the men with that fact. But the secret got out when I was reading a letter from Elizabeth outside the barracks, where anyone could look over my shoulder and read what she had written. She was wishing me an early birthday when Luz suddenly appeared at my shoulder.

"When's your birthday, McCall?" He asked. I tried to keep my blank face, but Luz saw straight through it and took the letter from my hands and ran off towards the mess hall. I hurried after him, not caring about what I looked like running after him. I chased him all the way around the mess hall and back into the barracks, where a lot of the company were on their cots. Luz stood atop his cot and read a bit of the letter before tossing it down to me.

"What the hell?" Bull asked loudly from his bed, which was right next to Luz's.

"How old you gonna be, McCall? Twenty?" Luz asked, jumping back down to the ground. The men inside the barracks automatically picked up on what I had been chasing Luz for and a thousand questions and comments started at once. I gave Luz a mock glare and he shrugged.

"What day is it?" Guarnere asked as loudly as he could.

"The thirtieth," I said, folding the letter up and putting it into my pocket.

"That's a Saturday, isn't it?" Skip asked, leaning over the edge of his bed to look at the pocket calendar he had. He quickly answered his own question when he found that it was this Friday instead of a Saturday. I sighed in relief; at least it wasn't a day where we'd be allowed to leave the camp. I couldn't imagine what would happen if the men made me go out to town with them.

But on the day of my twentieth birthday, the men found ways to celebrate with me under Sobel's nose. Guarnere and Toye spilt their canned peaches with during breakfast, Luz got me a pack of cigarettes (even though I didn't smoke), and Malarkey and Skip somehow got me some chocolate bars. I ended up splitting some of this stuff with others, not feeling entirely comfortable receiving gifts from these guys.

When we were dismissed for the day, I found Liebgott around the mess hall and I tossed him the smokes. He caught them and looked at me curiously. "You're giving me your smokes?"

"I don't smoke," I said with a shrug. "You were the first one who came to mind when I thought of who did."

Liebgott snorted and tucked the smokes into the pocket of his shirt. "Well, thanks for thinking of me, McCall."

"You're welcome," I said before turning my back to head back towards the barracks.

"Hey," Liebgott called after me. I stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow slightly. Liebgott gave me another slight smile. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks, Liebgott," I said. I finally left, going back towards the barracks. That night, Bull started another card game and this time he started to teach me how to play. I sat between him and Liebgott, both of them giving me different advice on what to do. Every now and then they'd yell at each other for giving me "bad advice". The game went on for several hours until Nixon came in, ordering us to get some sleep.

A few days later, two days before we left for Fort Benning, I got a letter from my mother. It struck me as extremely odd; Mother hadn't written to me before, and I had left on bad terms with her. Like so many others, she thought I had some sort of death wish for going to the front lines. This time, to make sure Luz didn't get ahold of my letter, I went into the showers. It was a Sunday, so most of the camp was at church and others were trying to waste time or they were out in the nearby town. Most of Easy were in town.

I tore open the letter and quickly read my mother's neat cursive. As I read, I felt a tightening in my chest, constricting me with every word written on the page. The back of my eyes started to burn with unshed tears and I quickly folded the letter back up and put it in my pants pocket. Mother had known about the furlough we would be granted once we graduated. She had taken the time to write me a letter telling me not to come home.

Taking long and deep breaths, I stayed inside the showers until I managed to calm myself back down. There was no way I was going out there with a tear stained face. It took about thirty minutes, and when I was calm, I left the showers and back to the barracks. But as I passed a trash bin between the showers and barracks, I tossed the now crumbled up letter into the bin.


	5. 5: Learning to Fly

I never thought Fort Benning could be worse than Toccoa. But somehow, it managed to meet Toccoa's level of misery and boosted it up to the next level. But even though it was December, the camp would still bristle with heat and humidity. The only positive thought that went through our minds was that this was the final step in becoming paratroopers.

Sobel got even tougher at Fort Benning. Our new schedule turned into physical training each morning, then breakfast, more physical training, practice jumps from wooden towers, field exercises, dinner, an hour of free time, and then one of the many night marches that Sobel forced us to go on. The entire camp was right next to a field about the size of eight football fields, and the flat land was where we were going to be landing out of our planes.

Everyone called it the Frying Pan because no matter what time of the day, no matter what the weather was, the Frying Pan seemed to absorb heat.

One day after the practice jumps, we were called for another medic training. This time however, we weren't supposed to be selective in who we took care of and the three companies-Dog, Easy, and Fox-were scattered around the woodland area. Commanding officers were involved too, so Roe and I ended up finding Winters. He participated as much as he could by holding his arm out for us and letting us order him around. Sobel was somewhere in the woods as well, but Roe and I didn't come across him.

After the exercise was done, Sobel was in a rage. Apparently, some unknown medics had found him in the woods, put him under _real _anesthetic to knock him out, pulled down his pants, and made a cut along his groin as if they were about to perform an appendectomy. They had stitched up the cut and bandaged it before leaving him passed out in the woods.

He automatically blamed me and Roe, but there wasn't any proof. And even though the head medic at Fort Benning urged Sobel to let it go and let him find the culprits, Sobel took it out on me and Roe anyway. He'd have us do more laps than the other members of Easy. One day, when the sun was at its hottest, Sobel had us dig a trench that was almost as tall as me. When we finished, he ordered us to fill it back up.

The day finally came that we'd jump out of our planes. As the planes got ready for take off, the jump-masters weaved around us, checking our equipment to see if we were all okay. We separated and loaded into the planes, all sitting shoulder to shoulder with our parachutes and reserve chutes clinging to our frames. I was squeezed between Luz and Martin, everyone shaking slightly as the plane jerked and shuddered through the air.

When we were airborne, no one sitting in the back of the plane could see the view from the front. I was sitting somewhere in the middle, so I got glimpses of the blue sky and green fields and forest from where I was sitting. Finally, the jump-master ordered to stand up and hook up. We did as he bid and I had to reach up on my tip toes to be able to hook up to the wire running down the plane.

I started tugging on some of Martin's straps, making sure his equipment was tight enough. Luz was doing the same to me, but he was being a bit rougher. And then the jump-master ordered that we give the final check.

"Twenty okay!"

"Nineteen okay!"

It went on and on until we reached the front. The first man got in the doorway and the second the green light came on, the jump-master screamed "Go!" and the man went flying. The line forward slowly, until Martin went flying out the window. As I approached the wide open door, I didn't look down, instead I stared at the blurred green horizon until the jump-master shouted for me to go. Without hesitating, I leapt out of the plane and into the void of empty space.

For a spilt second, I was falling through empty air. Then a felt a strong jerk at my naval and my parachute was deployed. I slowed down and I looked up from my gear to the view, and my breath caught in my throat. As far as I could see, the scenery was a perfect blend of green and blue. I could see exactly how far the forest went until it blended into the bright blue horizon. The camp looked tiny and the Frying Pan was just a small runway. An excited laugh escaped my lips as I looked around at the other paratroopers all around me. I couldn't tell who was who, but I could hear their voices. They were calling out to one another, every voice sounding extremely excited to be up in the air.

The ground got really close really fast. I raised my feet the way I was taught to and landed with a slight roll. My chute landed on top of me and for a second I was trapped underneath it. I somehow fought my out right as someone landed right beside me, almost on top of me. I looked over to see that it was Skip, looking slightly frazzled, but he had a huge smile on his face.

"We just flew!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. He was met by several whoops. I pumped my fists in the air and let out a holler. Easy Company had only been on the ground for less than a minute, and we already wanted to get back up there.

We jumped again that afternoon. The second time was just as exhilarating as the first, if not more. I allowed myself to stare out into the wide space surrounding me. Wind tried to tug me this way and that, but with the parachute controls firmly grasped in my hand, I managed to keep myself on a steady and smooth track back down to earth. This time I almost landed directly on top of Toye. I actually had to make him duck to avoid my feet. But once I cleared his head, I floated quickly for a few more feet before landing.

To earn our jumpwings, we had to successfully fly five times: two down, three to go.

Everyone had countdowns until the next jump, everyone eagerly awaiting the next one. It was still early December when we jumped a third time, but this time it was about sundown so the sky was stained orange, pink, and red. This time as we flew, no one really whooped or hollered. We all kind of floated gently in awed silence. The woodland had been dyed black that contrasted greatly with the water-colored sky.

Our fourth jump was on Christmas Eve. The jump was done right before dinner, and the sun was already down behind the horizon. The sky was a blend of black, indigo, and light purple where the sun had just disappeared. As we drifted down through the sky, I could hear some guys screaming "Merry fucking Christmas!" to the dark sky.

The next morning, Christmas day, we got a free day where we could relax. We were finally able to eat as much as we wanted. The meal consisted of turkey, cranberry sauce, bread with actual butter, corn, and green beans. Skip, Malarkey, myself, and the other Catholic and Christian men of Easy talked about the usual Christmas traditions back home. Malarkey talked about how his mother and grandmother would make a special Irish dish that they only made on Christmas. Skip talked about his girlfriend back home, Faye Tanner, and how last Christmas they went on their first date. I started talking about back home in Alabama, my sisters and I would always be in charge of decorating the place because our mother would be too busy with town business. I had to excuse myself to keep the boys from seeing me tear up.

When I returned, Liebgott, who was Jewish, went into a rant about what his family did around the holiday season. I found myself listening intently; I had never really come in contact with a Jew before, so I was a little lost when it came to the differences. Liebgott explained the difference in great detail and with great profanity. The history ended up being so amusing and vulgar that a good majority of the company surrounded Liebgott, who jumped onto a cot and was standing above everyone.

The next day was the day of our final jump. We loaded ourselves for the last time during jump school and we all leapt out of those planes without hesitation or nervousness. The sky was that beautiful bright blue that blended perfectly at that tiny point of the horizon, turning that thin line a mix between blue and green. That night, Colonel Sink arrived and personally pinned jumpwings onto everyone's chest. I held my chin a little higher as the wings were pinned on. Sink smiled a little at my obvious pride and he moved on to pin a set of wings onto Skip.

That night, we were allowed to drink alcohol for the first time in forever. I was sitting with Guarnere, Toye, Malarkey, and Skip. Guarnere bought the round and I noticed that he had brought five tall glasses of beer. He pushed a glass towards me and smiled wolfishly at me. "You're not backing out of this, McCall!" He shouted. When everyone had our glasses in hand, we clinked the glasses together and brought the alcohol to our lips.

The beer burned slightly on the way down, but at that moment with those men at my side, it tasted like the best glass of alcohol in the world.


	6. 6: Aldbourne

There was a ten day furlough after we earned our jumpwings. I stayed in the town right outside of Fort Benning, seeing as I was not welcome to go back home. Elizabeth wrote to me that she had fought with Mother about letting me come back for the holidays. The letter had places on it where my younger sister's tears had fallen.

The entire time of the furlough, I wandered around the town, required to wear my uniform. According to Sobel, we weren't allowed to wear civilian clothing. And when people saw my uniform, they openly stared. Most of the men smirked and muttered amongst themselves, not really hiding the fact that they were talking about me. But the looks from the women were somehow worse. They all gave me the same look my mother gave: a mix of irritation and extreme pity.

I waited eagerly for Easy Company to return.

On the day the furlough was up, I was the first one back. And then group by group, Easy would come back. When Malarkey and Skip returned, they let out loud whoops before crushing me in hugs. Others greeted me warmly, one of these was Liebgott. He was walking past me with Martin when he suddenly made a bee line away from him and towards me.

"Good to see you again, McCall," Liebgott had said oddly brightly. I felt so much better with the men back; life hadn't seemed the same without them.

Time fast-forwarded as we continued grueling exercises and marches and jumps. It continued moving as an extremely fast rate, until finally Sink decided we were ready for the next step. The entire division was sent to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and it became obvious to everyone that this was a staging area, the next step in taking us to the front lines. As we boarded the trains, people started bets to whether we were going west to California for the Pacific or north to New York and then England for the European or Mediterranean front.

"We could also go to Africa, you know?" Malarkey asked on the train. This led into a long conversation about going to Africa. When the train finally started to move, Webster was the one to figure out we were going North towards New York. Those who had been betting on the Pacific and Africa paid up to those who bet on Europe.

A letter was sent out by Sobel to everyone's family. I tried to imagine what Mother would do with it: get rid of it or give it to Elizabeth? I hoped that Elizabeth got the letter first so that she knew where to start sending letters. The mail would get even slower, considering they'd have to cross the Atlantic. But I knew I wouldn't be able to get through this war without some kind of letters from home.

The trains stopped in Camp Shanks, thirty miles up the Hudson River from New York City. After countless shots and preparations for life overseas, we settled into camp for the night, someone got ahold of whiskey, and everyone in the company had at least one glass of it. The whiskey burned my throat viciously, and it hit me harder than beer ever did. Thinking about the months to come, I had about three or four glasses of the whiskey.

By the end of that fourth glass, I was wasted and couldn't keep my eyes open. Around the end of the night, Malarkey took pity on me and carried me back to the barracks. I didn't actually remember a single thing from that night, but according to Malarkey, I hadn't been able to shut up. And somewhere in my drunkenness, I had talked about my mother not letting me return home. And that was the point where Malarkey got me out of there before I started talking more.

According to Malarkey, the only men who heard was himself, Skip, Luz, and Perconte. None of them mentioned it, but I did get side glances from them.

The next morning, everyone was hung over, yet it was time to head out on the ship. As we marched to the docks, Red Cross girls volunteering passed out coffee and doughnuts to try and revive us. The one that gave me the snack looked at me with wide eyes, but I was too hung over to care.

It took almost the whole day trying to get five thousand men onto a ship meant for one thousand. We lined the rails of the ship as the tiny tug boats started to pull us out to sea. I found myself crammed between Liebgott and Perconte, staring out at the New York harbor. As we got farther away, the crowd saying goodbye to us turned into a multicolored blur. And then we saw her.

The Statue of Liberty stood atop her pedestal, her arm reaching high into the air and the torch looking like it was glowing bright in the early evening sun. It seemed like she was waving goodbye to us as we slowly drifted out of the American waters.

"What d'you think is waiting for us?" I asked, not really expecting anyone to answer me.

Liebgott glanced down at me before looking back up at Lady Liberty. "Germans, and they're about to get their asses kicked." I smiled at his words and accidentally nudged him with my elbow. He glanced back down at me with a smirk and nudged me right back.

It took about two weeks of sailing to reach England. The entire time, I was crammed on a bunk between Guarnere and Toye. There was hardly any room for anyone to go walking around the ship; there were even some men who were forced to sleep in narrow hallways. It didn't help that two days into the journey across the Atlantic, my menstrual cycle kicked me hard in the gut. Easy Company had always known exactly why I'd become subdued and angry at certain times, but this was the first time they had been stuck in extremely tight quarters with me while I was on it.

On one occasion, it was late at night and Cobb and Webster were fighting about something stupid. I can't remember what it was exactly, but they were keeping the entire barracks awake. I was half-asleep when Guarnere bellowed at them to shut up. His voice, magnified by his closeness, woke me up completely. White hot anger filled up inside me and I leaned around Guarnere in the direction of Cobb and Webster arguing.

"If y'all don't shut the hell up, I will rip your testicles off in your sleep!" I shouted at the two of them. The fighting ceased as a shiver of laughter went through the men. I dropped back down into my cot and tried to go back to sleep. From either side of me, Toye and Guarnere shook with silent laughter.

By the time we landed in Liverpool, everyone was looking forward to the return of personal space. We were only on solid ground for an hour or two before we were loaded onto a train and headed south. I became fascinated with staring out the windows of the train as the English countryside went past. It felt like we had stepped on a Hollywood movie set; the scenery just didn't feel real. We were surrounded by small houses with thatched roofs and rose vines on the sides. Large horses stomped down cobblestone roads. We had arrived in Aldbourne, eighty miles west of London.

Aldbourne was very different than Toccoa, Benning, and Bragg. There, we had been kept completely military. Here, we lived with the everyday English civilians, where the people were conservative and quieter than us by a long shot. On our first morning there, we were taught about the customs here, the manners and habits.

We all got assigned to families and homes to house us for our stay here. Skip and I were assigned to a small family with one extra room. Though when they saw me standing in their parlor room, wearing an American Airborne uniform, they admitted that they thought they'd be housing two men. The father of the family-his name was George-showed us the telegram saying that they'd be housing us. I saw where he got confused; the telegram said _D. McCall and W. Muck._

George, his wife, Claire, and their ten year old daughter, Sylvia were happy enough to let us stay at their home. Skip an I shared the extra room, taking turns sleeping on the bed and the floor. And within the first few days of us staying there, the young girl Sylvia started following me around, staring with wide eyes at everything I did.

Although our environment had changed dramatically, we were still training for the invasion. Sobel got even stricter (if that was even possible) and we spent six days a week going on twenty-five mile hikes, going on night operations, spent an hour daily in close combat exercises, and got training in map reading, first aid, chemical warfare, and the use of German weapons.

One day, cold and raining slightly, our company was spilt in half as Winters and Sobel decided to lead operations against each other. The object was to try and disable the other group, as if the other group were the Germans. I was put into Sobel's group with Skip and Luz. Sobel led us all the way to the back of the woods, only to be stopped by a barbed wire fence.

Sobel gaped at the fence, looking between the fence and the maps he was reading. Hester, who was supposed to be assisting him, looked back to the rest of us with questioning eyes. He turned around back to Sobel right before Sobel turned around and glared at us.

"All of you, get behind those trees!" He ordered. I exchanged a glance with Skip before we followed out on this order. We crowded one another as we clustered behind the trees while Sobel and Hester tried to get the maps in order. We had only been standing there for a few moments when Skip nudged Luz.

"Hey, can you do Horton?" Skip asked. Luz then pulled off a spot on impression of Major Horton, causing everyone to smirk and chuckle. Luz then got a devilish look in his eye as he raised his voice in that perfect imitation of Major Horton.

"What is the God damn hold up?" Luz asked loudly.

There was a pause before Sobel actually called out, "A fence, sir! A barbed wire fence!"

Luz smiled widely. "Then cut it down, and get this God damn platoon on the move!"

After a minute of sitting there, Hester came back behind our cluster of trees and his eyes landed on Luz. He didn't say anything; he just held back his laughter and led us back to where the wire fence had been cut.


	7. 7: The Days Ahead

The thing about Aldbourne was that it was a fairly small village. For weekend passes, we were told we could either drink quietly in the local pub, or go out of town to one of the Red Cross clubs. Almost everyone chose the Red Cross clubs, that is, everyone except me. For the first few weekend passes, I stayed in Aldbourne, writing letters to Elizabeth and trying not to let myself get too drunk again.

But finally, the men got frustrated with me. On Sunday afternoon, after church was over, the guys practically dragged me to the bus station to go to the nearest Red Cross club a few miles outside of Aldbourne.

When we got there, the club was filled with American soldiers-some playing pool, some jostling each other for control of the jukebox, some were dancing with some Red Cross volunteers, and others were simply sitting at tables eating American food or playing cards. A few Red Cross girls moved straight towards us and Guarnere launched himself forward to one of them. The girl turned red and giggled before Guarnere took her out on the dance floor.

I ducked away from the group, trying to avoid the gazes of the British girls. Majority of the men didn't notice; they were too absorbed in the thought of British girls and apple pie. I found an empty table and sat down. Skip sat down beside me. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Why're you sitting?"

"Believe me, I want to go dancing, but I just want to dance with Faye." Skip said. I gave him a small smile and patted his arm.

"Don't worry, Skip," I said. "When the war's over, you and Faye are gonna be dancin' all over the place." Skip smiled at me and patted my hand. A Red Cross volunteer walked over to our table with a notepad and pen in hand. I took my hand off Skip and was about to go find somewhere else to sit but the girl got here too fast.

"Hello there, my name is Edith," She said in a slight posh accent. She smiled broadly at Skip, and then she took one look at me and her smile faltered just a little bit. "Um, what can I get for you two?"

Skip looked at me, frowning slightly at my behavior. Then he looked back up at Edith. "A burger a beer for each of us, please." Edith nodded at him, shot me another look, and then walked away. Skip looked back to me immediately with a slightly raised eyebrow. "What was that about?" He asked in an unamused way.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, looking over to where a few of Easy's men were starting a game of pool.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Skip said. "You practically hid from those Red Cross girls when we got here, and now you're not even talking to them."

I sighed. "I hid from them because I know exactly how they'll look at me. You don't know it, but I do. It's a mix of pity and irritation, as if they're silently asking me why I would even sign up for the military."

Skip snorted loudly, causing me to look at him with surprise. "Who gives a crap what those British girls think? They don't know what you've been through with us, and they won't ever know. Easy used to give you that look, and now look at us. I consider you and Malarkey to be two of my best friends."

I blinked at him, touched. "You do?" Skip nodded, patting my arm again. I laughed shortly, "That Faye is a lucky girl." I said. Skip laughed and he got that look in his eye that he always got every time he talked about Faye.

Edith brought out the burgers and beer soon after that, and I gave her a kind smile this time around. She nodded politely in my direction and asked if we needed anything else. After she left, Skip and I ate our meal with occasional breaks to talk about how much we missed constant American food. Luz suddenly appeared on the other side of me.

"So why the hell are you two sitting out?" Luz asked, looking at me and Skip.

Skip shrugged. I mimicked his movement, "Don't feel like it, I guess." I said.

"That's the worst excuse I've ever heard," Luz said with an eyeroll. He suddenly grabbed my hands and started to pull me towards the dance floor. "C'mon, McCall!"

I was pulled to my feet by Luz and he somehow got me onto the floor. A fast-paced song was playing on the jukebox, and Luz responded by moving his feet to the fast beat; I laughed loudly, throwing my head back and trying my best to mimic his movements. Others noticed and laughed as well; I assumed we looked like we had no idea what we were doing.

The song ended and another fast-paced song started. Luz's hawk eyes noticed Webster, Liebgott, Tipper, Roe, and a few others sitting out on the side. "Get your asses out here!" Luz shouted at them. Liebgott and Tipper glanced at each other. Webster snorted and sat down to make a point. Luz looked over at me over-dramatically. "Help me out, McCall!"

Maybe it was the fact that this was the most fun I had had in a long time, or the alcohol I had consumed, because I rushed over to the group of wallflowers with Luz. I went over to Roe because he was the closest, and I grabbed his hand, pulling him out onto the dance floor.

"I ain't dancin' by myself," He tried to argue, his Cajun accent coming out.

"Fine," I said, spotting a Red Cross volunteer. I pulled Roe over to her. She blinked at me and looked up at Roe. "Hello, this is my friend, Eugene Roe. He's a little shy, so would you mind dancing with him?"

The girl blushed and smiled a little. "Not at all."

"What did you say your name was again?"

"I didn't say. And my name's Vera,"

"Well there you go, Roe." I said, leaving him and Vera alone. Luz was still trying to get Webster on his feet. Tipper had found a Red Cross volunteer to dance with. Liebgott was standing a little ways away from Webster and Luz, laughing at the scene unfolding in front of him. I walked up beside him and looked up at him with a pointed expression. Liebgott noticed and snorted.

"You're not getting me out there," He said shortly.

"Why not?" I asked.

Liebgott shrugged, not answering. He sat down at a nearby table. Not giving up easily, I sat down with him at the table. He let out a slight huff of laughter at my persistence and locked eyes with me. "You don't give up easy."

"You've known me for almost two years now and you just noticed that?" I asked.

Liebgott smirked and shook his head, leaning forward slightly. "No, I noticed it when you refused to leave Toccoa."

"Good times," I muttered. Liebgott snorted with amusement. A Red Cross volunteer stopped by our table and asked if we wanted anything. Liebgott and I glanced at each other briefly before both ordering beer. The girl returned quickly with our drinks and once she was gone, Liebgott picked up his mug and raised it towards me. I did the same with mine.

"Here's to the days ahead," Liebgott said. We clinked our drinks together before drinking deeply from the glasses.


	8. 8: Training's End

Winters and Sobel were having a sort of falling out. Or, it was more like Sobel was at Winters's throat, and Winters was trying to ignore the rising hostility as best as he could. Easy tried to eavesdrop and get any kind of information we could, but it was harder than it seemed. Every time a rumor reared itself up, another would pop up that was the complete opposite of the first.

When we received word that Winters was leaving Easy Company, there was the expected explosion.

"I ain't following Sobel into battle," Guarnere said one night in the local pub of Aldbourne. He had already had a few drinks and his tan face was slightly red. I exchanged a glance with Skip, who had the same expression that I had. Despite our silence, the two of us had conversed about what was likely to happen if Sobel took us into battle. We'd get misdirected and end up dead.

A few days later, Sobel was suddenly promoted to teach a new paratrooper school here in England. He would be leaving us and was replaced by Thomas Meehan. Meehan was Sobel's opposite; while Sobel had dark black hair and a long face with a deep and throaty voice, Meehan had lighter hair and a voice that sounded like it was created to command. He was strict but fair, unlike Sobel who had people run extra laps because they pissed him off. And I'd be lying if I said that I didn't find this new commanding officer to be attractive, but I knew better than to try and start anything romantic with anyone.

When I first volunteered, I had had a meeting with Sink himself. The man wanted me to make sure I completely understood everything I was getting myself into, including romantic relationships, which were absolutely forbidden. Sink warned me that not only could the man get too attached and distracted, as he put it, but a big worry he had was if I got pregnant while we were overseas. There'd be the problem of getting me off the front lines and back to the States, all while making sure nothing happened to the unborn child inside me.

Every now and then, I'd look over the men constantly surrounding them and tried to imagine the men my mother would try and set me up with. Malarkey and Skip were my best friends in the company, so they were out of the picture immediately. I had come to think of Roe, Guarnere, Toye, Luz, and Perconte as brothers, so it'd be weird with any of them. I imagined the look on my mother's face if she ever met these guys, the men I was living in tight quarters with. She'd probably be horrified.

I had another birthday with the men in Aldbourne and I turned twenty-one. Although I had already drank alcohol, the guys took me out for drinks anyway. I got two letters; one from Elizabeth and the other from Mary. Both of them wished me a happy birthday and Mary said that she and her husband Phillip would take me out for drinks when I got back. I received word that Mary was pregnant with her first child, the due date to be sometime in June.

Thanksgiving and Christmas passed, both with big turkey dinners. Some people tried to do gift-giving, but since we were stuck in Aldbourne, it was kind of hard to get anyone a proper gift. I had saved up my monthly pack of cigarettes and gave them to whoever smoked.

In March, there was a jump with second and third battalions; it was the largest jump we had done so far. England's Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower showed up to watch. After it was finished, we stood at attention in formation as the two important men weaved among us, taking time to talk to a few. They stopped at Malarkey, asking him where he was from and if he liked England.

They started to walk past me when Churchill caught a glance at my face. My face, too feminine to hide, was sort of a spotlight amongst the rugged men around me. Churchill's hesitation caused Eisenhower to stop as well, and next thing I knew, the men were both talking to me.

"What made you volunteer?" Eisenhower asked. I was surprised that he didn't sound like other people when they asked me that question. While other people sounded like they were talking to a crazy person, Eisenhower seemed to be actually curious.

"I wanted to help my country," I responded with what I hoped sounded like a firm voice. Eisenhower smiled at my answer and he said that we'd all be home in no time. Then he and Churchill continued, and I had to force myself to calm back down, not realizing that I had been shaking slightly.

It was about a month later when we finally received word that we'd be heading out. An operation known as D-Day was soon approaching and the 101st Division was going to be jumping behind enemy lines. We started hard training, the first week of May being our dress rehearsals. As the day got closer, I noticed that my hair was longer again. And although there were hair dressers in Aldbourne, I always went to Liebgott. He knew how I liked my hair to be cut and he was always happy to see me, unlike some of the British ladies who still looked at me like I was crazy. Right before we left for the operation, I went to Liebgott, getting my hair cut even shorter. Liebgott obliged, but he made comments the entire time.

"You sure you want it this short?"

"Yep,"

"I can't put it back on once it's off,"

"I know,"

I only got it cut to right below my chin. It would grow back out eventually, so I went ahead and embraced the shorter hair. When he finished, Liebgott took a step back to inspect his handiwork, and I was surprised to see his eyebrows move up ever so slightly. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing, you just look-" He cut himself off before he could say anything else. We walked back to the village in comfortable silence.

On the last day of May, we marched to the trucks that were lined up on the street. Half the people of Aldbourne, nearly all of them unmarried girls, was there to say tearful goodbyes. I spotted Vera from the Red Cross waving tearfully at Roe. Those two had become extremely close during our nine months living here. Right before we loaded the trucks, Sylvia, the little girl Muck and I had been living with, rushed forward and hugged my legs. Then she ran off, her shyness getting the best of her.

Training had come to an end. We had been preparing for this moment for twenty-two months. We had become hardened as physically as a person could get. My body had transformed from the soft and curvy figure to one of sharp muscles and hardened angles. Men who had started off with average strength now had arms that rolled with muscle. We all knew how to handle our weapons and we knew how to follow orders unquestioningly and without hesitation.

As we sat down in the truck beds, I sat across from Guarnere and Malarkey. Roe and Liebgott were on either side of me. As the truck started moving, I exchanged a look with Liebgott and gently nudged his arm. He smirked and nudged my arm right back.


	9. 9: Chasing the Sun

The airfield was crowded with paratroopers. Liebgott was shaving guys' hair for fifteen cents each. Someone had found dark brown oil to use as war paint. When the jar reached us, Malarkey slapped some on my face. I just rolled my eyes at him and rubbed it all over my face, covering my cheeks, forehead, and jawline with the heavy substance.

We were given almost a hundred pounds of supplies to carry on us. Malarkey and Skip helped me get everything on, but I felt like I was about to fall over with the slightest breeze. Once I was finished, I helped Malarkey and Skip as much as I could, and soon we were all moving slowly and stiffly as if we were moving in slow motion.

Meehan called the men of Easy over to where he stood on the hood of an Army Jeep. Malarkey, Skip, and I moved as fast as we could to where he stood. By the looks of it, we weren't the only ones having problems with our new equipment. Perconte was moving even slower than we were. When we finally arrived in front of Meehan, he looked around at the war painted faces that surrounded him.

"The canal is covered with rain and fog," Meehan said loud enough for everyone to hear. "No jump tonight. We are officially on at a stand-by."

Easy seemed to release the breath we had all been holding in. For some, they were relieved. But for others like me, it just meant we had to wait until that fog cleared up, as if we hadn't been waiting enough already.

Everyone helped each other out of the heavy equipment and several went off to watch a movie that was being played in one of the bigger tents. Because I couldn't think of anything else to do, I went along with my usual group of friends-Guarnere, Toye, Malarkey, and Skip.

I couldn't pay much attention to the movie that was playing. As far as I could tell, it was a love story about a soldier and one of the Army nurses. Their relationship was forbidden by the commanding officers and the basic plot seemed to be them trying to get away with being together. Malarkey, Skip, and Toye seemed to enjoy the movie; they were paying close attention and would shush anyone who talked during the program.

"I got the wrong jacket," Guarnere hissed from beside me. I glanced over at him as he read through the letter anyway. I read over his shoulder, seeing Martin's name. Guarnere suddenly tensed violently and his hands drooped until they hit his knees.

"Guarnere?" I asked quietly. Guarnere stood up suddenly and moved quickly out of the movie tent. He had to pass Toye, who looked away from the screen as his best friend left. Toye looked back at me with wide and questioning eyes. I shrugged and followed Guarnere.

He wasn't in the makeshift barracks, or by the medical tent. I finally found Guarnere standing on the edge of the airfield, staring at the planes we'd be loading into in a matter of hours. The letter that hadn't been meant for him was folded again and was being clutched in his hand. I approached him slowly until I was at his side.

Guarnere shifted slightly so that I couldn't see his face. But that didn't stop him from talking, "Martin's wife has been keepin' taps on everyone. Checking the papers, combing them for familiar names." He cut off.

"And?" I asked softly after a pause. Guarnere breathed deeply.

"She wrote to Martin," He said, his voice cracking. "My brother was stationed in Italy. He got killed over there."

I didn't say anything for a long time. I moved closer to Guarnere and put my hand on his shoulder, rubbing it slightly. Guarnere sniffed and continued to hide his face from me. After a while, he patted my back with enough strength to knock me over. He looked at me head-on, his eyes tinted red from crying. "Thanks for being here, McCall."

"You're welcome," I replied, offering him a small smile. Guarnere returned it and we walked back towards the makeshift barracks together.

* * *

><p>It wasn't long until we were called back to the airfield to take off. Malarkey, Skip, and I helped each other into the massive amount of equipment and we separated to go to our assigned planes.<p>

"See y'all on the other side," I said to them. They both gave me warm smiles before going off. With a nervous sigh, I went over to my assigned plane where Luz was standing. He slapped my arm playfully as people started to load into the plane. It was almost my turn when I took one last, long look at the airfield and the men surrounding me.

For some, this would be the last time they ever set their feet on solid ground.

Luz practically shoved me into the plane. I was squeezed between Cobb and Hoobler. As the plane was loaded up, no one said a word to each other. My knee started bouncing uncontrollably.

The plane sputtered and suddenly jerked to life. We started to move slowly down the airfield. From outside our plane, the British and Americans who weren't coming with us were cheering and saluting to us. My stomach clenched up painfully and I focused my eyes on the spot right between my boots. My boots...

What I was doing hit me then at full force. Most twenty-one American girls were back in the States, going to Bridge Club and organizing fundraisers for the war. Some of them might be getting married or even have children already. Mary was married at twenty. And here I was, sitting in a plane as it gained speed with two medical kits attached to each hip and a point-forty-five gun at my side. While girls my age were starting lives in America, I was over in England, going off to risk my life.

Panicked thoughts bounced around my head, and I felt the overwhelming urge to jump out of this plane while it was still on the ground and somehow swim all the back to the States. As these thoughts entered my head, the plane's wheels made it off the ground and started to climb higher into the sky.

I looked up from my boots and glanced around at the men surrounding me. A lot of them were staring at either their feet or their hands. From beside me, Cobb looked gray. Hoobler was mumbling under his breath and I realized he was praying. Luz was farther down on the other side of Cobb, and his tan face looked quite paler. I looked up at the roof of the plane, trying my hardest to choke down the rising fear that was threatening to attack me.

Before we left Aldbourne, we were all encouraged to write our wills. I didn't have a lot to give away; I wrote that Mary and Elizabeth could have any clothes that they found in my bedroom back home. I wrote that all the books I owned back home would be donated to Wetumpka's public library; Lord knew that they needed a bigger variety of books. The few articles of furniture that I owned would also be donated. My will was pretty short, and I had seen some guys with wills five times the length of mine.

I gripped my knees so tightly that my knuckles turned white. Hoobler saw and patted one of my hands awkwardly, trying to comfort me as best as he could. I gave him a grateful look and nodded for probably a solid two minutes, trying to calm myself. Breathing somehow became easier and I closed my eyes, not wanting to see these men in pain.

Malarkey, Skip, Guarnere, Toye, Liebgott, Luz, Roe, every last one of them had became some of the best friends I had ever had. The seven of them had gotten to know me and talk to me in ways that even the girls I grew up with had no idea about. Through suffering in Toccoa, Benning, the sea, and Aldbourne, I had found a group of men who had become my family.

I decided in that moment that if I couldn't be strong for myself, I should at least be strong for them-for Easy Company.


	10. 10: Landed

The ride to the D-Day beaches was bumpy as the winds got rougher and the plane got faster. At some point, Bull took off his helmet and threw up into it. Sadly, he wasn't the only one who did this. My own stomach felt like it was going to release its contents if the plane didn't stop jerking us around. From beside me, Cobb's face was still gray and he switched seats with Luz so that he could get some air.

My heart hadn't stopped pounding in my chest, and I kept my hands gripping my knees as tightly as I could hold them. After a while, I seemed to calm down, but then a giant jerk would rock the plane and I'd be right back at my petrified state.

The sound of explosions and bombs soon came to our ears and the plane ride became even jerkier. Everyone stiffened in the plane. Our jumpmaster stood up at the front of the plane. He shouted something, and the paratroopers in the front of the plane stood up. Luz nudged me roughly and we both stood up together. But I lost Luz when someone from the other side of the plane wedged themselves between us. A pang of panic from being separated from one of my best friends but I forced it down and got on my tiptoes to hook myself up.

We started to pat each other down, tightening straps and making sure that the person in front of us was tightly bound. Hoobler patted me down quickly and I did the same to the man in front of me. The countdown started but I could barely hear it. I only knew Hoobler's number when he patted my shoulder and shouted, "Twenty okay!"

"Nineteen okay!" I shouted as I patted the guy in front of me. The countdown continued until it was finished and everyone tensed up even more than we already were. I stared hard at the red light, waiting, waiting...

It turned green.

"Go! Go!" The jumpmaster screamed loud enough for everyone to hear. The first person leaped out of the plane and the line moved steadily forward. I shuffled my feet, waiting for my chance. Right before Luz jumped, I glanced up into the black sky above us and sent up a silent prayer for the safety of my friends and for myself. Luz was then out of the plane, then the guy in front of me, and then with the jumpmaster's permission, I leapt out of the plane.

Bombs were going off and the world was a terrifying display of black, blue, and fiery red. I was falling in empty space for a horrifying spilt second before I deployed my parachute. The chute went up with a slight snap, jerking me up into the sky. As my chute slowed me down, I saw other paratroopers surrounding me, but I couldn't make out anyone's faces.

Bursts of orange and red came from somewhere below me. Planes zoomed overhead and goose bumps erupted on my flesh when I saw one plane get hit and then descend down in an inferno. I looked back down at the ground and my stomach tightened. I was going way too fast. Suddenly, the tree branches were right underneath me and I yelped in pain as I tore through the branches, my chute barely slowing me down.

I had just emerged from the branches when my parachute got caught in the branches. For a brief moment, I hung there. But then a tear spilt through the air and my chute ripped through the branches. I yelped again as the ground rushed to meet me. I landed face first on the grassy ground. My parachute landed slowly on top of me, instantly tangling me into the cords, straps, and fabric.

Kicking off the fabric of the chute, I managed to untangle myself from the many cords that were still attached to me. My body ached from the fall, but I also felt lighter. I patted my hips, feeling the two medical kits there. But when I searched for my gun and reserve chute, they weren't there. I hissed quietly out of frustration; I must've lost my reserve chute and my only weapon somewhere in the fall.

A bush rustled somewhere ahead of me, I crouched lower to the ground than I was already as a cricket sounded. I quickly dug my own cricket from my jacket pocket and clicked it, making it ring three times.

"Flash," I hissed.

"Thunder," Liebgott's voice answered from the darkness. I stood up as he did, both of us moving forward cautiously. Liebgott's silhouette came into view and I saw that he was holding his gun at attention, ready to attack any enemy we came across.

"Have you seen anyone else?" I asked.

"No," Liebgott hissed. "I think everyone got blown off track. I lost my map. Have you got yours?" We paused while I checked my backpack. I quickly found the map and we checked it. Liebgott cursed when he saw that we were a whole grid off track. "How the fuck are we supposed to get back?"

I narrowed my eyes at the sound of the curse word. Liebgott gave me a look right back, as if daring me to question his profanity. I shrugged slightly and folded the map back into my backpack. I told him about my lost gun before we headed back out. Liebgott cursed again and we headed into the darkness.

Liebgott and I moved quietly for a few minutes, pausing every now and then to reread the map and make sure we were going in the right direction. We decided to head towards a nearby farmhouse; Liebgott decided that that seemed like the place everyone else would head to. According to the map, the farmhouse was twelve miles away, so we started in that direction.

After a while, I muttered, "It's a good thing Sobel didn't come with us."

Liebgott snorted. "He'd get lost and lead us straight to the Krauts." I smiled at his silhouette and we continued on in silence for a little while. But after a while, we heard the sound of heavy boots heading our way. Liebgott and I ducked down behind a cluster of bushes. I pulled out my clicker and I was about to let out three clicks when rough, German voices sounded.

I pulled out my knife out of my boot; the only weapon I had against the Germans. Liebgott gripped his gun tightly and aimed it to the area right above the bushes we were hiding behind. As the Germans got closer, I felt my heart thud inside my chest.

"_Hast du Yank Schrei gehort_?" One voice said. I frowned at the language, completely foreign and terrifying against my ears. Liebgott stiffened beside me and his grip on the gun tightened considerably.

"_Ich habe ein gutes Messer von einem._" Another voice said. Their boots passed right by us and I counted three pairs of feet. I held up three fingers to Liebgott, silently telling him how many were out there. Liebgott nodded at me and bunched up his legs underneath him, as if he was preparing himself to go out and attack them. His boots made the leaves underneath him crunch.

"_Hast du etwas gehort_?" A final voice asked. Liebgott suddenly stood up and opened fire. The German soldiers weren't able to scream before Liebgott mowed them down. When he stopped, he glanced down at me and held out his hand. I hesitated before taking it. I snuck a glance at the German soldiers and shuddered at the sight of the three bodies there.

Bile crept up into the back of my throat and I doubled over, trying not to throw up. Liebgott didn't say anything, he just put his hand on my back until I was able to get control of myself. Liebgott searched my face. "Are you okay, McCall?"

I jerked my head quickly, not sure if it was a nod or shake. "I will be when we get away from here. Let's just head towards that farmhouse."

Liebgott nodded in agreement. I couldn't move my feet very well at first, shaking violently from the sight of the German soldiers. Liebgott reached out and put his hand on the back of my bare neck and he started to gently pull me away from the bodies. He kept his hand there for a while, and I could feel his hand shaking slightly the whole time he kept it there.

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN: Hello readers! Just a quick note with this chapter about the sentences in German. I had to use Bing Translator to help me, so if the translations are off or completely incorrect, please bear with me. On top of that, the code for typing an umlaut would not work, so that probably throws the translation off. If you do understand it, I applaud you because I've always wanted to learn the German language.****

****Secondly, I won't be updating as much as I usually do because college finals are all this week and next week. So I'm taking the time off to focus on that, and when I'm done I'll be back to posting regularly. Good luck to anyone who has to take finals, midterms, any kind of test! ****

**Translations (or what they're supposed to be):**

**"Hast du Yank Schrei gehort?" - "Did you hear that Yank scream?"**

**"Ich habe ein gutes Messer von einem." - "I got a good knife from one.**

**"Hast du etwas gehort?" - "Did you hear that?"**

**Thanks for taking the time to read this! :)**


	11. 11: Hostility

Liebgott and I moved steadily through the woods. We kept close to each other, and we weren't sure how we were going to find the other members of Easy. Every now and then, we had to stop and check the map, and then we'd have to stop again because we heard boots stomping through the forest. At some point, Liebgott and I were pressed against a large tree as a large group of Germans passed by us.

It didn't take long for me to realize that Liebgott could understand everything that the Germans said. One German would say something, and Liebgott would occasionally get tensed up. His grip would tighten on his gun and the muscles in his legs tightened, as if he was about to launch himself out into the middle of a fight. I didn't understand most of what the Germans were saying, but I caught on the words "_Ja_"and "_Waffe_" meant "yes" and "weapon."

Liebgott and I were moving through the darkness when I decided to bring up his understanding of the language. "How'd you learn German?" I asked.

"My parents came from Austria," Liebgott said. "Their German was better than their English, so they used German at home a lot."

I accidentally stepped into a deep puddle with murky brown water. I hissed from between my teeth and quickly got out, my boot making quiet squeaky noises with every step I took back to Liebgott. Although the shadows were covering his face, I could see his silhouette shaking with silent laughter. Instead of getting insulted, I let out a huff of laughter.

"How d'you say 'shit' in German?" I asked.

Liebgott laughed before saying, "_Schieße__," _

"_Schieße,_" I repeated, the word feeling weird coming off of my tongue. We approached a small cliff. Liebgott climbed down first and turned around to help me get down. Carefully, I slid down the cliff and I ended up falling into him. When I ran into him, I accidentally caused him to stumble and we almost lost our footing. By the time we got separated and got our balance back, I could feel my face burning slightly. "_Schieße,_" I said quietly.

"You gotta learn another word," Liebgott muttered as he pulled the map out of my backpack. "Damn is _verdammt._" I repeated the word as he looked over the map. "We're a few miles out; we just gotta keep moving."

"Fine by me," I replied. We headed out again, but we weren't moving for long before we heard footsteps nearby. I grabbed Liebgott by the arm roughly and I pulled him behind a tree with a thick trunk. We pressed our backs against the bark as the footsteps stopped. Suddenly, the sound of crickets sounded three times. I exchanged a quick glance with Liebgott before clicking my cricket three times.

"Flash," A familiar voice called out quietly.

"Thunder," Liebgott answer. We left our hiding spot and found Buck Compton, Popeye, and two soldiers who weren't from Easy. Buck looked over me and Liebgott and nodded at the pair of us.

"Is it just you two?" He asked.

"Yes sir," I said.

"Good thing we ran into a medic," Buck said grimly. "One of those guys from Fox Company landed hard on his front. He says he reached out his hands to stop the fall; bottom line is that his wrist is broken." I looked past Buck to the Fox men in question. One of them had his right hand held up against his chest. Buck looked down at me. "We'll pause so that you can assess the damage."

I approached the man, nodding slightly at him. He held out the injured hand and I carefully took the uninjured part of his wrist and held it in my fingertips. The skin around the wrist was purple with bruises and I could see lumps of bone pressed against the skin. It looked very crooked.

There wasn't much I could do for him, he needed an aid station to help him completely. The most I could do was grab a thick stick from the ground and wrapped it around his wrist using some medical tape from my medical kit to keep it steady. The man's name was Murphy, and the other Fox man was named O'Donnell. Once Murphy's wrist was bound, Buck led the way towards the farmhouse. Apparently they had been heading that way too.

After several minutes of walking, we entered a clearing. We were about halfway through when a group of five German soldiers entered the clearing right across from us. The two groups stared at each other for a split second when one of the Germans screamed and order. I hit the dirt along with the rest of my small group and we were able to hide behind a low dip in the ground as bullets kicked up puffs of dirt right above our heads.

Buck, Popeye, Liebgott, and O'Donnell returned fire. Murphy tried to help them, but I had to stop him. He could further injure his wrist. The two of us kept very low to the ground as more dirt was sprinkled down on top of us from the gunfire.

A loud ding got my attention. A bullet had grazed the top of Liebgott's helmet. My heart stopped beating for a moment as Liebgott shook himself. He locked eyes with me for a moment before nodding at me, confirming that he was okay. I exhaled deeply right as Popeye tossed a grenade to the Germans.

An explosion went off and soil rained on top of us. I got some in my eyes and I rubbed the soil away furiously, causing my eyes to burn slightly. The German fire had stopped. Buck peeked over the top of the dip for a second before leading the way over towards where the Germans had been taking cover. I followed behind the group, not entirely eager to see the carnage.

Four of the five Germans had been killed. The last was terribly injured by the grenade's blast. He had pieces of shrapnel buried in his arms, chest, neck, and face. His helmet had fallen off, letting us see his face.

"Are we taking prisoners?" Murphy asked, looking to Buck for guidance.

"Why should we?" O'Donnell asked roughly. "Would they do the same for us?"

Buck looked at me. "McCall, see if you can save him. If you can, we'll take him with us. If not, we'll put him out of his misery." I nodded and moved towards the German cautiously.

I knelt down beside the German and pulled out a pair of tweezers from my med kit. The German soldier started squirming underneath my touch. Hot blood got on my hands and I felt shudders going up my arms. With a shaky voice, I said, "Liebgott can you please tell him to keep still?"

"_Stillhalten Sie, Arschloch._" Liebgott said sharply.

The soldier glared up at Liebgott but did as he was told. I carefully gripped a piece of shrapnel with the tweezers and pulled it out. The German screamed in pain as fresh blood started to flow out of the open and burned wound. I quickly took another out, causing him to cry out even louder. Liebgott rushed over and hissed, "_Halt den Mund!_"

The German glared at Liebgott with something close to hate. "_Fahr zur Hölle. Und deine Hure mit Ihnen._"

Liebgott froze and stared at the man for a moment before looking at me. "Rip more out of his face." I blinked at him, surprised by the aggression that was suddenly in his face. The German started to laugh cruelly.

"_Ich hoffe deine Hure blutet aus vor Ihnen. Ich hoffe, ihr Tod ist schön und langsam._" The German said. He stared at Liebgott with a type of malice I never would've imagined on anyone's face. The other men were watching the conversation closely, not able to understand the conversation. But everyone was able to see that the German was making every word personal for Liebgott.

I leaned forward and dug another bit of shrapnel out of the man's neck, shutting him up. He opened his mouth to cry out in pain again, but Liebgott stuffed some kind of cloth into his mouth. The German looked at Liebgott with fury but was unable to say anything.

I finished yanking all of the shrapnel pieces out of him and I quickly cleaned up the wounds. "We gotta keep moving," Buck said. Popeye and O'Donnell took either side of the German soldier and they pushed him along. Murphy was right behind them, pointing his handgun at the German's back. I fell into the back with Liebgott.

"What was he saying to you?" I asked. "It sounded pretty bad."

Liebgott didn't answer right away. "He was just being an ass. Don't worry 'bout it, McCall." I nudged Liebgott's arm gently. He huffed in slight laughter and nudged my arm right back. We walked side by side at the back of the group, back on track to the farmhouse.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I think I figured out how to get the hang of writing in German. I'm still relying on Bing Translator, so don't get too frustrated with me if these translations are completely wrong. Here are they are (or what they're supposed to be):**

**"Stillhalten Sie, Arschloch," - Stop moving, asshole.**

**"Halt den Mund!" - Shut up!**

**"Fahr zur Holle. Und deine Hure mit Ihnen." - Go to hell. And take your whore with you.**

**"Ich hoffe deine Hure blutet aus vor Ihnen. Ich hoffe, ihr Tod ist schön und langsam." - I hope your whore bleeds out in front of you. I hope her death is nice and slow.**


	12. 12: The Aid Station

We finally made it to the farmhouse and found that most of the other troops had traveled here as well. Right as we entered the makeshift camp, there was a small group of German prisoners sitting with two American guards. Buck quickly had our prisoner dropped off and we continued down the muddy road, entering the camp.

"_Ich hoffe, Sie alle sterben da_ _draußen_." Our German prisoner shouted at us. He was quickly shut up by the American guards and forced to sit down. Liebgott scowled at him and shook his head.

"If we ever see him again, it'll be too soon." Liebgott said bitterly. I gave him a small smile and we moved faster to catch up to the others.

The sun was starting to slide up the sky as the members of Easy found a spot to sit. O'Donnell and Murphy nodded at us and left to go find Fox Company. I had just sat down when a runner ran straight up to us.

"All medics are to report to the aid station," He said breathlessly. I nodded and glanced at Buck. He nodded at me and I ran after the runner to where the aid station was located. It was inside a beaten down building that had the sturdiest structure of the entire area. Most of the other buildings surrounding the farmhouse had holes in their ceilings, but the aid station looked whole.

I entered the aid station and glanced around at all of the people crammed inside. Almost everyone standing was a medic, digging through their med kits and patching up anyone they could get their hands on. I spotted Murphy getting treated by a medic I didn't know. I scanned around for any sight of Roe, but I didn't see his dark head anywhere. A twinge of fear pricked at my belly.

A shout of pain sounded from somewhere to my right and I followed the sound until I saw a man with most of his face covered in severe burns. I froze in the doorway for a moment, staring at him as he settled down in a corner of the room, being ignored by all of the medics. I tightened my jaw and glanced down at my med kits. I counted the morphine bottles and small battle dressings. I mentally inventoried the rest of my med kits' contents: scissors, wire cutters, hemostats, needle holders, needles and thread, plus a wide assortment of bandages and antiseptic.

Because no one was going to the burned man, I moved over to him, approaching him from his good side. He glanced up at me and pulled half of his mouth up into a smile. The other half of his face was covered in burns and limited his movements. I circled him carefully, checking his wounds. The burned flesh had somehow cracked and they were oozing fresh blood.

"Can you tell me what happened?" I asked in what I hoped sounded like a commanding voice.

He blinked. "I landed in a field of fire. I didn't land on the flames but my chute got caught in the flames. I couldn't get unhooked in time."

I stared at his wounds for a moment, deciding that they were second degree burns. I carefully removed his jacket and shirt to check the skin underneath. His upper arm, shoulder, and chest weren't as badly burned as his face and hands, but they still needed medical attention. "Alright," I muttered. "Tell me your name,"

"Swartz," He said slowly. His hair was dark black, but on the left side of his head, the hair had been burned away into crisp little wisps. His eyes were a bright blue, but the whites were stained a little red.

"Well, Swartz, I'm gonna do whatever I can to make you better," I told him firmly. Swartz gave me another half smile and nodded. But then he winced in pain by that simple motion. "How much pain are you in?"

"Not as much as you would think," Swartz said. I forced myself to keep my face blank. If he wasn't feeling a lot of pain, then the burns had damaged his nerve system.

As I took care of Swartz, he kept talking. I encouraged it, knowing that he could drift off while I working on him. "I got a twin sister," Swartz said at one point. "She's a medic too."

I looked away from bandaging the wounds at that. I frowned. "Really? With the Army?"

"No; she's in the Marines. She was sent into the Pacific." He said this with a lot of pride. I smiled at the pride he was showing for his sister. "She enlisted a few days after me. I guess she wanted to prove that she could fight too."

I finished with Swartz's wounds to the best of my abilities. "I'll get another medic to stop by and check on you."

"Thank you, McCall," Swartz said with that half smile.

"McCall!"

I looked up at the sound of my name and saw another medic looking at me. "There are more soldiers in here who need medical assistance." He said. I nodded a goodbye to Swartz and followed the other medic.

Swartz would be sent back to the States after that. His burns were too severe to keep him on the frontlines. Sadly, I wouldn't see him again for a very long time. But I'd meet him and his twin sister years after the war was over and done with. But that's getting ahead of myself.

As I entered the main room, I saw that it was filled with new faces. There were some minor injuries like Murphy's broken wrist, but there were some injuries with men missing limbs and burns even more severe than Swartz's. A hint of bile came up my throat and I almost threw up at the sight of it all. But I swallowed it and rushed into the scene to where one man had a shard of shrapnel deep in his thigh.

"Rip it out!" He was screaming as some medics tried to pull the shrapnel from his thigh. Tears were streaming down his face and blood was squeezing its way from his thigh and onto the table he was spread out on. "Fucking tear it out if you have to!"

"McCall! Hold the shrapnel steady!" One of the medics screamed at me. I nodded and moved forward without meaning to. The medic put the pair of tweezers into my hand and gave me the order to hold the shrapnel steady and pull when told to. I nodded again, surprisingly jaded to the whole situation. The medic pulled out his knife as others held down the soldier.

The medic dug the blade in between the shrapnel and flesh. The man screamed so loudly I could've gone deaf from where I was standing. "Pull the piece!" The medic screamed at me. I yanked on the shrapnel and it gave away with a sickening squishing sound. I put the free bit of shrapnel on the table as someone else sprinkled sulfa powder into the wide hole. The soldier passed out from shock.

"Someone monitor him," The head medic said. "We don't want to lose him to shock." I nodded, still feeling light-headed. The other medics and I wandered off searching for more soldiers who needed attention.

The day stretched into an endless parade of burns, blood, pus, and torn flesh. Several times I got the urge to throw up, and every time I forced myself not to. Around noon, I was relieved by a Dog Company medic and I walked outside for the first time in hours, exhausted and my hands stained faint red. A pile of dead bodies was growing right outside the front door of the aid station. I swallowed and walked over to where the small group of Easy had been.

I wasn't very surprised to see that they were all gone, but I did feel a strong stab of fear for all of them. So far, I hadn't seen any members of Easy appear inside the aid station, so that was a plus. But Liebgott and I had been dropped several miles away, and we had headed this way on a whim. How thin were we all spread? And how long would it be before we were all together again?

My worries were put to rest around early afternoon when some members of Easy returned. Winters and Buck were carrying Popeye between them and they were moving fast. I intercepted them and brought them to the least crowded area of the aid station. There was an empty table and that's where Winters and Buck put Popeye down, laying on his stomach.

"What happened?" I asked sharply, seeing the spot of blood on his butt.

"Popeye got shot in the ass," Buck reported. I blinked for a second, briefly wondering if he was joking. But it became apparent that he wasn't and I shooed them from the room, surprised at myself for being forceful with my commanding officers. I went back to Popeye, who was apologizing for fooling around.

"Calm down," I said, pulling out my knife. The blade was faintly red with dried blood. I quickly washed it off and cut through Popeye's pants so that I could see his wound. The bullet hole was right in the center of Popeye's butt cheek, blood surrounding the area. "You've _got_ to be kidding me," I mumbled.

"Sorry, McCall," Popeye groaned.

I cleared away some blood and found that the bullet wasn't that deep. I could see the glint of metal from the light. I would be able to reach in with my tweezers and grab it. I glanced at the back Popeye's head.

"I'm not gonna lie, Popeye," I said. "This is gonna hurt like hell."

"Thanks for the warnin'," Popeye said through gritted teeth. Hi hands clenched the sides of the table and I counted backwards from three, my disinfected tweezers ready to dig the bullet out of this man's ass.

When I finished counting down, I buried the tweezers into the wound, almost instantly hitting the hard bullet. Popeye gnashed his teeth and cried out briefly. I furrowed my brow, latching the tweezers around the bullet. Popeye screamed out loud this time. I pulled hard on the bullet and it gave away with that squishing sound that I was becoming familiar with. Popeye panted and exhaled deeply.

I dropped the bullet onto the table and sprinkled sulfa powder into the bullet hole. "I don't know how, but the bullet got slowed down and that made it easy to get out."

"That was considered easy?" Popeye asked. I laughed shortly and patched him up. I told him not to move for a while and I went off to find Winters and Buck. They were outside along with a crowd of Easy men. I spotted Liebgott, Toye, Guarnere, Malarkey, and Lipton. I sighed in relief to see them. But their eyes went straight to my red hands. I rubbed them against a rag from my pocket that was slowly turning red from blood.

"I got the bullet out," I said. "Something had slowed it down. He won't be able to sit for a long time but he'll live."

"He gonna be sent back to England?" Guarnere asked.

I shrugged. "Most likely." Winters and Buck exchanged a glance but said. I heard screams of pain coming from inside the aid station. Without saying a word to them, I went back inside the building to help.

* * *

><p><strong>Translations:<strong>

**"Ich hoffe, Sie alle sterben da draußen." - I hope you all die out there.**

**"Scheiße," - Shit.**


	13. 13: Thinking of Home

I wrote a letter to Elizabeth as the sun went down. I couldn't tell her where I was exactly, or some of the sights I had seen. So I just settled with writing about the constant medical routine that had occurred today. I told her that a lot of guys got hurt, but majority of them survived their wounds. I noticed about halfway through my letter that some blood from my hands had gotten onto the paper.

Elizabeth was sure to love that, I thought grimly.

A jeep was loaded up with injured men going to England. I quickly found Popeye and stopped him from getting on. "Could you mail this when you get back to England?" I asked him.

"Yes ma'am," Popeye said with a smile. He took the letter and got onto the jeep stiffly. I left the area as the jeep pulled off into the growing darkness. From where we were, I could hear fighting going on a few miles away, and bright lights would occur every few minutes. I spotted Winters sitting and watching with a thoughtful expression on his face. I turned my back on the scene and went off to find the rest of my company.

I quickly found them from the smell of smoke coming from a covered truck bed. I poked my head in to see Lipton, Buck, Toye, Guarnere, Liebgott, and Malarkey sitting inside. A small pot was filled with some kind of greasy liquid and Malarkey was stirring it revealing some pieces of beef and vegetables inside.

Guarnere was the first to notice me. "McCall, there you are. Get in here; Malarkey's makin' shit for dinner."

"Shut up," Malarkey said without looking up from the pot. The other laughed as I climbed inside. There was very limited seating, so I had to sit to sit between the entrance and Guarnere. I was practically on his lap, but it was either that or just not stay.

Liebgott and Toye were smoking, so the smoke from their cigarettes combined with the overwhelming scent of Malarkey's dish. The air inside of the truck bed was thick and heavy; I felt like I was suffocating after a few minutes. But everyone was laughing, telling jokes and talking, so I stayed with them.

"What d'you even have in there?" I asked Malarkey.

"Nothing you won't eat," He replied, filling a ladle full and letting the greasy stew spill back into the pot. Some of the hot oily liquid got onto Toye, and he shouted at Malarkey for "being careless about the damn sewer water." More laughter came from this comment. But when it was time to get mug-fuls of the mystery stew, we all held out our mugs eagerly.

Malarkey's mystery stew was one of the oddest things I had ever had. The vegetables were boiled so they had a rubbery texture to them. The hunks of beef were tough to chew. And the broth was greasy. But it was the closest thing I had had to a meal since leaving England, so I drank two mugs of it.

The next morning, more Easy Company members found their way to the rest of us, Skip included. He came back with Webster, Talbert, and a handful of Fox and Dog Company men. As the day continued, more and more soldiers returned. I was working in the aid station when Roe returned with a large group of Dog Company men. He instantly dove into working on some injured men and I barely had time to greet him.

Meehan was one of the men who didn't return. Apparently his plane had gone down. No one was sure if he was alive or not, but until he showed back up, Winters was in charge. We stayed in the farmhouse area for about half a day before we got orders to head out with Dog and Fox Company. Right before we headed out, Luz returned with a group of Able Company men.

The hour before we headed out consisted of everyone mingling with one another, and with this came everyone showing off their prizes. Liebgott was showing off a German flag with the Swastika on it to some younger men from Dog, Fox, and Able. Perconte had several watches lining up his left arm. Some guys were interested if I got a souvenir, but I just shrugged.

Soon, we were heading out to our next objective. I fell into step beside Malarkey and Skip. I was happy to have those two back beside me. Skip started telling us a story about how he and his group had gotten ambushed by German soldiers. One guy from Able got hit directly and was killed on the spot while another guy from Fox had been shot twice in the chest.

"We could've used you there, McCall," Talbert said, joining the conversation. "We had to patch that poor bastard up ourselves."

"McCall was too busy keeping me alive," Liebgott interjected. He approached us from behind and caught up to our group. "I was about to get spotted by some Krauts when she dragged me behind a tree before they caught me."

I barely remembered that happening but I went along with Liebgott's story. Talbert looked at me with raised eyebrows, impressed. Liebgott continued telling him about our tale of wandering through the woods, exaggerating every detail and making it sound like we destroyed any German that came into our path. I noticed that Liebgott had a lawyer's way of speaking; quick, intelligent, slightly irritated if you didn't keep up with him. I think part of the reason that Liebgott enjoyed talking to me was because I wasn't put off by him.

As we continued on, more Easy Company members joined us. Albert Blithe and a few others were some of these, returning from hanging out with other companies all day. We stopped for a while before we were given the new formation of Fox in front, Easy in the middle, and Dog bringing up the rear. As we marched out again, I glanced up at the sky, seeing that the sun was already setting.

"Hey, Liebgott," I said. He looked at me with slightly raised eyebrows. "D'you have any idea what time it is in the States?"

"Are you setting up a joke here?" He asked, looking slightly confused.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "No. I'm just asking."

Liebgott frowned and thought about it. "Well, seeing as the sun is setting here, it might be rising on the East coast in a few hours. So maybe early morning for them and later for the West coast. Why do you ask?"

"I'm just thinking about home, I guess."

Liebgott blinked and nodded to himself. "I think everyone else gets the same way. How's your family doing without you?"

"Elizabeth keeps me up to date on the gossip going around town; apparently everyone there thinks I'm volunteering as a nurse in New York." I said with a shrug. Liebgott frowned deeply. "My mother told them so they wouldn't know 'the shame of havin' a daughter who's fightin' like a man.'" I imitated my mother's thick Southern accent, causing him to laugh.

When he stopped laughing, he looked at me. "Does she really think that?"

"It's what I imagine she's thinking," I said. "She was raised by a Southern Belle and an Englishman who immigrated over. In other words, very proper."

"Sounds like fun," Liebgott said sarcastically. He laughed shortly. "How the hell did you turn out the way you did?"

"No idea," I said with a snort. "I assume it was because I always hated acting fancy and proper. I imagine my volunteering for the Army is making her cringe."

"What about your old man," Liebgott pointed out after a pause. "What does he think?"

I didn't answer right away, thinking hard about my dad. "My dad died when I was four; right before Elizabeth was born. I don't remember him much really."

Liebgott put his hand on my shoulder. "Sorry I brought it up."

"You didn't know, so it's not your fault." I said automatically. I looked ahead at the others and noticed that we were falling behind. I nudged Liebgott sharply with my elbow. He didn't waste any time before doing the same to me. "C'mon; we gotta catch up." I said before speeding up after the rest of Easy. Liebgott was right on my heels.


	14. 14: Carentan

Clouds blocked out the moon and stars from view. The only light we got came from small patches of fire. A scent entered my nostrils that caused my skin to crawl. The bitter taste of vomit filled the back of my throat when I realized that the smell was burning flesh and bloated bodies of dead soldiers. I clenched my teeth tightly and sped up a bit, not wanting to stay there any longer than possible.

That night we had to dig foxholes to spend the night. I ended up sharing a foxhole with Malarkey, the pair of us taking turns sleeping as the night dragged on. I had the last turn sleeping and woke up to the sun starting to stream into our foxhole.

"Rise and shine, McCall," Malarkey said quietly, blinking tiredness from his eyes. I groaned slightly and woke up with the rest of Second Battalion, and we finished making our way to the town of Carentan.

The way to Carentan had a gravel road heading up a hill towards it. I could make out gray and brown brick building. But from where I was, I couldn't see if there were any Germans staying in there or not. Winters and Welsh were up front, getting ready to execute their battle plans. I crouched between Guarnere and Tipper, ready to follow them into battle.

Welsh gave a signal and he started straight up the gravel road with a couple men. I recognized Luz immediately and chose to follow his form as he headed up the hill. But right when Welsh and the others got to the top, gunfire exploded from the town and two men went down instantly. The rest of the men dove onto either side of the road, trying their best to hide in the ditches. Welsh and Luz disappeared from sight.

"Go! Go!" Nixon started to scream from the back of the crowd. Winters and Buck pelted forward and started to push men out of the ditches.

"C'mon!" Winters called back to the rest of us. There wasn't even a moment of hesitation before Easy Company followed orders and charged towards Carentan.

I charged with the rest of them, staying close to the far edge of them. I had a borrowed gun clenched tightly in my hand. I really didn't want to shoot at anyone, but my instincts were screaming at me that it could be necessary. I had just stopped running behind a small building before I heard the screams calling for a medic. I looked around the corner of the building where the screams were coming from.

I recognized the man's face from Toccoa. He had never really spoken to me, but he had never been openly hostile either. From where I was hiding, I could see that he had been shot in the throat. I bunched my legs up, hesitating before charging out towards him. But I never made it out of my cover before a German bullet met the man's head, causing him to hold still forever.

My mouth went dry and I accidentally bit the inside of my mouth hard enough to draw blood. A pool of red was forming around that man's head...

A memory of one of the first lessons of medic training came to my mind then. Unger had stressed to everyone that hesitating in the heat of battle was deadly for the men we were supposed to save. And I had just ignored one of my first medic lessons-

Another cry for a medic drew me away from my guilty thoughts and this time I bolted out of hiding and into the fray to where the cries were coming from. Another man had pressed himself up against a building's wall, bullet wounds dotting his right arm. I didn't stop until I reached him, but once I was there, I stared blankly at the stumps briefly, not entirely sure what to do.

"Medic?" The man asked in a weak voice. He knew I was there, I when I looked down at his face, I found myself locking eyes with him. Tears filled his eyes. "D-Don't let me die yet."

A surge of fierce protectiveness filled me up and I set my face into what must've looked like a stony expression. Without really being conscious of what my hands were doing, I started to do the appropriate procedure for any standard bullet wound. When I was finished, I tagged the man for a stretcher and patted his chest in what I hoped was confidence. "You're not gonna die yet, bud." And with that, I forced myself to move on to whoever else needed my help.

I was right outside of a building when the glass from the windows shattered. The force of the explosion knocked me to the ground, also causing my helmet to slide off of my head. A few shards of glass flew at my face, but I had moved my arm to block my head from the explosion. When I managed to get ahold of myself, I saw tiny bits of glass clinging to my jacket sleeve. I quickly brushed them off and glanced around briefly for my helmet. My body went cold when I caught sight of who was limping out of the building.

Tipper was somehow forcing himself to walk on two broken legs, shards of bone sticking out of his clothes. Blood covered his face and neck, suggesting that there was another wound somewhere on the top of his head. One of his eyes seemed to be completely closed; probably from the heavy flow of blood pouring into it. The other eye was squinted.

"Holy shit," Liebgott's voice sounded. He was glancing between me and poor Tipper. Liebgott and I locked eyes and I quickly nodded at Tipper. Liebgott nodded with understanding and went to help his friend. I got to my feet as Liebgott helped Tipper sit against the battered, brick wall. "McCall's here," Liebgott told Tipper.

I used a clean rag to wipe away a lot of the blood on Tipper's face. I found the source of all of it: a five inch gash stretching across his scalp. I gave the gash a battle dressing and then looked down to Tipper's legs. Liebgott held onto Tipper for me while I cleaned away the blood and bound the legs as best as I could, making sure to be extra careful about the bone fragments piercing through his skin.

"Medic!"

I heard the scream for me come out a few yards away from where I was hiding. I looked on the other side of the building and saw another soldier writhing in pain on the dusty ground. Shots of dust and stone would shoot up around him every now and then, trying to get at him and the other men. I bunched up my legs and prepared myself to run out to get him.

Liebgott saw what I was about to do and grabbed onto my sleeve. "You can't go out there! It's suicide!"

The image of that dead man I had failed entered my mind. "I have a job to do, so let go!" I snapped suddenly, breaking free of his grip. "Get Tipper out of here!" Without a second thought, I ran into the rain of bullets to the injured man. I got to him without problems and I grabbed him by the shoulders and started to drag him back to cover. The soldier groaned and moaned in pain. "You're gonna be fine," I said through gritted teeth, though I doubted he heard me.

I had gotten the man halfway to safety when a searing pain exploded on my right ear and I was knocked back by the force of the bullet. I felt hot blood pour down my neck from the graze and I pressed one hand against the side of my head to stop the flow of blood and I used the other hand to grab ahold of the soldier again.

I managed to pull him out of the way of fire. I removed my hand from my head and started to inspect him. His eyes rolled and locked on my bloody ear. I ignored his concerned gaze and found the bullet wound going through his shoulder. I lifted him up so that he was in a sitting position and checked for an exit wound. There it was. I nodded jerkily and listened closely to his breathing. His lungs sounded okay. I reached into my pocket and ripped open a sulfa packet before sprinkling it into the bullet wounds. I quickly bound the wounds and plunged a morphine needle into his arm and had him lean back on the ground before tagging him for more medical care later. "Stay here!" I shouted at him before rushing back out there to get to another soldier who went down a few yards away.

This man was missing half of his body. I stared for a second at the several bloody stumps, not entirely sure what to do. A grenade went off near us and I quickly shielded the man's body with my own. A few drops of my blood got onto the man's chest. I got off him when it was safe and pulled out another morphine needle. I couldn't do anything to safe this man's life, but I was at least gonna ease this man's pain. After I pushed the morphine into his system, I was about to go help someone else when the soldier raised his bloody stump of an arm to stop me.

"Pocket on my left leg," He said so softly I had to lean in to hear him properly. "C-Could you g-grab my picture," I did as he asked and briefly looked at the picture. It was of a two year old boy, wearing light blue pajamas and a giant smile on his face. I held it up to the man's face and a few tears slid down his face.

He died two minutes later, looking at the picture of his two year old son.

It seemed ages until the fighting slowed. I was patching another man up when we received word that reinforcements were coming to help us clear out Carentan. I sighed loudly relief and then helped the man to where our aid station had been set. We were halfway there when I started to stumble, my bleeding ear starting to give me real trouble.

We finally reached the aid station and Roe's hawk-like eyesight zoned in on the pair of us almost automatically. The man I was helping was given to another medic while Roe focused in on my injured ear.

After he finished the man he'd been taking care of, Roe pulled me away and sat me down in a quiet corner of the room so that he could clean up my ear. He quickly mopped away the clumped blood on the side of my face and neck, and his breath sucked in when he finally got a good look.

"What is it?" I asked, feeling scared now.

"It looks like that bullet took off more than half of your ear," Roe said in that analytical way of his. "The earlobe, and whatever skin was left got burned pretty bad; I'm going to have to cut all that off or we'll risk an infection. But first, we have to see if you can still hear out of that." He grabbed a tiny square of gauze and wound it as tightly as he could before putting it into my good ear as far as he could. I tried not to flinch away and had to substitute flinching with squeezing my knees with my hands as hard as I could.

Roe started to make noises like snapping his fingers and clapping right beside my hurt ear; then he'd go a little distance away and do it to see if I heard. He was gone for a long moment before I heard someone crying out for a medic somewhere to my right. I turned around to see that Roe had gotten some random soldiers to pretend that they needed my help.

Miraculously, my hearing ended up being just as it always was. Roe reported that the hole was still there, so after he cut away the burned skin and stitched up the wound, my right ear had transformed into a odd stump with a tiny hole in the center. He wrapped gauze around the wound by making it go across my forehead and down around the back of my head.

"Well, despite the fact that you're missin' more than half of your ear, I'd say that you're good as new." Roe reported. I thanked him, carefully touching the gauze at the side of my head. "Now go see if anyone out here needs help."

"Yes sir," I said before standing up and heading out into the new aid station.


	15. 15: Aftermath

Inside the aid station, I helped out several men as they came and went through the doors. One of the men I got was Lipton, who had to be helped in by Talbert. The first injury I saw on Lipton was the deep cut on his right cheek. But then I saw the dark stain right on Lipton's groin.

_Oh no_, I thought to myself. I remembered Popeye's injury right on his butt, and I couldn't help but feel immensely worried about removing bullets from the _front _of a man's lower area. During training, I had seen more than my fair share of the guys' private parts, but I wasn't in any hurry to stitch one up. The thought made me shudder.

"It ain't what you think, McCall," Talbert said. He must've seen the look on my face. "I checked him out; the bullet hit 'im right above his-"

"Thank you, Talbert," I cut him off, going over and putting Lipton's other arm around my shoulder. Talbert and I moved him on top of a table. Talbert excused himself to go get a graze checked out, leaving me alone with Lipton. I quickly inspected his face; the cut would need a stitch or two, but it'd heal fast enough. I decided that his groin wound was probably the top priority. I checked for an exit wound and found it almost immediately afterward.

I made Lipton lower his pants a bit so that I could properly inspect the wound. He obliged and lifted the bottom of his shirt up so that I could get a better look. Fortunately, I was able to properly take care of the wound without having him remove his underwear.

Once his clothes were back in order, I fixed Lipton's face wound with a single stitch. "Are you sure that your ear's okay?" He asked me for the tenth time. He was worried that I'd be sent back to England or the States. I assured him that it'd be fine, and then gave him the order to relax in a quiet corner until we moved out again. Lipton laughed shortly before smiling at me and going off to follow those orders.

After another few hours of working in the aid station, I was relieved to go eat and rest for a while. I exited the aid station to find that the weather had changed from the gray morning we had fought underneath to a bright and sunny afternoon. Looking around at the men relaxing and regrouping, I shook my head and spotted Malarkey, Skip, More, and a man named Penkala.

Penkala was the one who noticed the gauze wrapped around my head first. "Holy shit! What the hell happened to you?"

The others noticed and voiced their own questions, each of them sounding exactly like Penkala's. I sat down beside Skip and smiled slightly at their concern. "Oh, I lost an ear while I was dragging someone out of gunfire."

Malarkey and More laughed slightly at this, Penkala stared at me with an open mouth, and Skip just shook his head and said, "If that's not deserving of some German rations, I don't know what is." He handed me some stolen rations that had come from random German soldiers. I took a bite and instantly made a face at the horrible taste that filled my mouth. They were somehow worse than our own rations.

The meat from the German rations tasted slightly like pork, but they were so tough that it took minutes to chew it. Skip started a story about one of the Dog Company commanders who supposedly shot all of our German prisoners dead. I frowned and thought about the German prisoner that I had encountered with Liebgott. Did this Dog commander kill him and the others?

"What happened?" I asked, finally swallowing the terrible ration.

"Speirs offered each man a cigarette, and right when they were lighting up-" Skip made a sudden noise of an automatic gun. "He shot them all down. Malarkey was there."

"No I wasn't!" Malarkey replied, looking slightly alarmed. "I didn't see any of it; I heard the gunfire though."

"Well, what d'you think happened?" I asked. "Was there anyone else with him?"

More glanced at me. "I heard that one of his own soldiers was with him. Speirs shot him down for disobeying orders."

"I heard that one too," Penkala said. "Is there any chance that it's actually true?" Skip shrugged.

Welsh approached us and waved one of his arms at us. "C'mon, break it up. Time to move out!" Malarkey and More stood up, followed closely by Penkala and Skip. I sighed heavily and Skip offered his hand to help me up. I grabbed it and he quickly lifted me up off the ground.

"Hey, McCall," Malarkey said. "You know where your helmet is?" I suddenly remembered that I hadn't seen my helmet since that explosion had knocked it off my head. I shook my head at him, answering his question. Malarkey glanced over my head. "Isn't that it?"

I followed Malarkey's gaze to where Liebgott was approaching us with an extra helmet in his hand. I instantly recognized my own helmet and started off to meet him. Liebgott had his own helmet on his head. His eyes went straight to the gauze wrapped around my head and he looked momentarily alarmed. "What the fuck happened to you?"

I quickly explained what happened right after I left him and Tipper outside of that building. Liebgott's eyes narrowed slightly and his jaw tightened. I shrugged. "Don't worry about it, Liebgott." He looked like he still wanted to worry about it. I looked down at my helmet, still being held in Liebgott's grip. "That's mine, right?"

He nodded and gave me small smile before handed it to me. I ran my hand over the top of my helmet, seeing that the metal was now slightly dented.

"I found it laying out in the open." Liebgott explained. "It was around the area where Tipper got hurt, so I figured it was yours."

"Thank you, Lieb," I said, grateful to have my helmet back.

"You're welcome, McCall," Liebgott said, smirking slightly at the shortening of his name. I put my helmet back on my head and Liebgott and I started walking back towards the others. Malarkey and Skip had halted to wait for me to return, and they launched into a conversation with Liebgott about what they had seen during the battle.

I put my helmet back on my head, hiding most of the gauze. As we moved out of the town of Carentan, I looked over at Liebgott. "How's Tipper? Did you get him to the aid station?"

"Yeah, I did." Liebgott said. "He's getting sent back to England."

I nodded to myself. "Sounds about right. If his legs heal fast, he might be sent back to us. But that all depends on timing." Liebgott glanced down at me and looked like he wanted to say something, but he remained silent.

And then: "There's no chance of _you _getting sent back to England, is there?"

I sighed but a feeling of satisfaction filled my belly at the thought of Liebgott worried about me leaving Easy. "Roe tested my hearing out pretty well. So I don't think there's a chance of that happening. If there is one, it'll be to make sure that my hearing hasn't been hurt in any way."

"You're still talkin' to everyone, so I'm gonna take that as your hearings fine." Liebgott said with a slight smirk. I nudged his arm, which, as always, was met by Liebgott nudging my arm right back.


	16. 16: Someday

It started to rain a light drizzle as we moved farther away from Carentan. As we moved, I managed to take a small inventory of my medical supplies. The two med kits I had were definitely lighter than before, but there was nothing I could do about that. I still had plenty of thread for stitching but my supply of gauze and disinfected needles was running low. I made a mental note to ask Roe later if he had any spare I could have.

"You got everything you need?" Hoobler asked from nearby. He had seen me taking stock apparently.

"Everything I should need," I answered. "I'm gonna have to fill up as soon as possible though." Right before Hoobler could reply, the sound of gunfire ripped through the air and I instinctively dove to the ground to avoid any bullets.

"Take cover!" Someone shouted from up ahead. I looked up to see my comrades return fire whilst running towards the woods. I scrambled to my feet and followed suit, praying to God that the bullets missed me.

Almost everywhere I looked, I saw puffs of dirt flying up as bullets hit the ground. I also saw some men fall to the ground as they got hit in the backs. One man fell to the ground, a red mist flying out from the front of him. I almost passed him but skidded to a stop to grab his jacket. He was crying out in pain as I started to drag him towards the shelter of the trees.

Hoobler was suddenly helping me with the man, grabbing his legs and lifting him off the ground. Together, we carried him into the woods. I didn't thank him, and he didn't stick around long enough for me to. Hoobler rushed back to the frontline to help the others at returning the gunfire. I stayed behind a tree and patched my patient up as best as I could.

I left the man behind that tree, giving him as much cover as possible. I heard a scream and ran towards it, careful to stop every now and then to avoid the gunfire. I spotted Malarkey and Skip using their mortar gun. I took brief shelter right behind them before making a mad dash across a clear patch of land to get to the screaming soldier. As I ran across, the dirt at my feet flew up as German bullets tried to hit me. I dove into the cover of the trees and managed to get to the injured man.

The man had made a gruesome mistake with a hand grenade. He had pulled out the pin and hadn't thrown it immediately afterwards. Now his right hand was missing three fingers and the other two were badly broken. His arm, neck, and face had also gotten severely burned. I sucked in my breath at the sight of him. He then started to cry, his shoulders were shaking violently and loud moans were escaping his ruined mouth.

"Calm down, buddy," I said as calmly as I could with the ground shaking. "Let's see what we can do."

"It hurts!" The man moaned.

"I know it does," I said, gently grabbing his hurt wrist and inspecting his destroyed fingers. As carefully as I could, I cleaned and bound his two broken fingers and I set battle dressing onto the two stumps where the fingers had come clean off. But there was one ruined finger where half the finger was hanging off by the joint. I had to cut that off myself, I realized.

He saw my worried expression. "What?" He asked sharply. "What else is wrong with me?"

I swallowed. "I have to cut off this finger right here." I pointed out the finger and the man started to cry again. He didn't put up any resistance as I placed his hand against a bit of cloth I had put on the ground. "One, two, three!" I counted down and when I finished, I brought down my knife against the ruined finger, cutting it off. My patient screamed in pain that mingled with the sound of gunfire and explosions. I quickly stopped the bleeding and put a battle dressing on it.

After I patched him up, there was another man and another and another. I found myself slowly getting used to the death and carnage. By the time the sun was setting, both sides stopped firing at each other and we were told to dig foxholes to spend the night. All of the injured were taken as far away from the frontline as possible. They wouldn't be able to be transported back to an aid station until reinforcements came in.

Roe and I were told to make rounds around the entire company to make sure everybody was okay. And since we were so close to the enemy lines, we had to duck and roll into every single foxhole to make sure nobody got hurt. I had just left Skip and Penkala's foxhole when I landed into a new foxhole with Liebgott already sitting in it.

Webster, who was sharing a foxhole with Liebgott, was sound asleep. I glanced at him before turning my attention to Liebgott. "D'you know if he has any problems?" I asked.

"No, he's fine." Liebgott said. "Nice of you to drop in, by the way."

I let out a laugh. "All in a day's work. D'you have any injuries?"

"I got a splinter in my hand," He replied. Liebgott reached out his hand to show me the fat splinter that had been wedged into his palm. Instinctively, I reached into my med kit and pulled out my set of tweezers. Liebgott frowned at me. "I got my own tweezers, you know?"

"Then why haven't you taken the damn thing out already?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Liebgott didn't answer but held out his hand again. I grabbed it with one hand, holding it steady while I latched the tweezers around the splinter and pulled. It came free with a tiny drop of blood rising to the surface. Before Liebgott could say anything, I used a small square of gauze and cleaned the splinter wound. Liebgott watched me work silently, his narrowed eyes tracking my movements.

"How'd you learn so much about medicine?" Liebgott asked quietly so that he didn't wake up Webster.

I smiled slightly. "A few years after my dad died, some of the men from town wanted to marry my mother. She wasn't interested in any of them but strung them along anyway. I think she liked the attention from them all. Anyway, one of them was a doctor in town. He was smart enough to know that in order to impress Mother, he had to win over the kids. Mary hated all of the medical talk; she preferred it better when he brought her dolls and such. Elizabeth was just a toddler, so she couldn't understand anything he said. But when_ I_ heard about how he healed people back from terrible injuries and sickness, it just," I paused, thinking about it with a small smile on my face. "It just made me want to be that important one day, to be able to bring people back from pain and suffering. To make people right again."

Liebgott had a grin on his face as he listened to me talk. "You think you'll ever become a doctor once this is over?"

"I hope so," I said with a short laugh. "I can't imagine what life's gonna be like after this. What are you doin'?"

Liebgott shrugged. "I think I'll leave Michigan, head out West to California maybe. Work as a barber until something better comes along. Haven't really thought it out yet." I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off by the sound a scream of pain coming from nearby. Liebgott and I exchanged one quick glance before leaping out of our foxhole and towards the screams.

Talbert was leaning heavily against a tree trunk, his right hand pressing down on his chest. Even in the darkness, I could see the blood coming from between his fingertips. Smith was standing right in front of him, pointing his bayonet at him. I ran to Talbert and helped him sit down on the damp forest floor.

"Holy shit," Smith said, covering his hand over his mouth. "I-I thought he was a Kraut. It was an accident-"

"Calm down," Liebgott said, glancing between Smith and Talbert.

"Fucking idiot," Talbert hissed from between his teeth. "I told him it was me." I lightly bonked the top of Talbert's helmet, frowning slightly at him.

"Stop that," I said. "It was an accident and you're gonna live. These stabs are barely deep enough to be a problem."

"You got everything you need, Di?" Liebgott asked.

I blinked at the nickname, barely registering that Liebgott had shortened my first name instead of my more common-known last name. "I'm fine; thanks." I said, fighting the smile that coming on my face.


	17. 17: Letters From Home

After a night of restless sleeping, I became fully awake when the Germans started attacking us again. The gunfire was coming down even harder than the day before, and it didn't take long to discover that German reinforcements had arrived. I clenched my teeth and hissed, "Fuck," for the first time in my life. My anger at the Germans was short-lived, however; I soon heard that cry for a medic and I launched myself into that direction.

The amount of injuries seemed to mount even higher today. I quickly found Boyle after he was injured in the leg. And after him was Gordon, who had gotten wounded in the shoulder and calf by tank shrapnel. And then there also seemed to be more men who died as soon as they were hit. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of fighting, our reinforcements came in with tanks, giving us enough firepower to push the Germans out of the area. Soon after, Easy Company was brought back to Carentan for the time being.

A few days later during a patrol somewhere south of Carentan, Blithe got shot in the neck by a German sniper. Roe had to hold him down while I dug the bullet out. While we were treating him, Winters told everyone that we were leaving the frontlines and going back to England.

It was around this time that I looked around at Easy and saw how dirty we all looked. We hadn't had a bath or shower or opportunity to shave. We were all always drenched with sweat. Everyone's hair was matted from dirt and dust and all of this was made worse by constant sweating caused by wearing our helmets constantly. On top of all this, body odor was a constant smell due to wearing the same clothes since June sixth.

I had a feeling that Mother would shriek in fright if she saw me this unclean.

On June twenty-ninth, the eighty-third Infantry Division came in to relieve us. I stopped what I was doing to stare at them. I had been with only Easy men for countless days; I had grown used to everyone's stink and the way each man held himself. To see a new batch of men who were complete strangers and who were so damn _clean _was sort of disorientating.

But my uneasy thoughts of these new men were brought to a halt when I realized that we were all gonna get a full night's sleep, hot food to eat, a dry place to sleep, and best of all, get a shower.

It seemed hard to believe that when we had first jumped into Normandy on June sixth, we had one-hundred-thirty-nine officers. We were relieved on July twenty-ninth with seventy-four officers and men present for duty. As soon as we were loaded the trucks that would take us to Utah Beach, I watched Carentan fade away in the distance. Somehow I figured that I wouldn't miss it that much.

* * *

><p>The townspeople of Aldbourne welcomed us back with open arms. Our living arrangements were the same as before, so Skip and I quickly found our family's house. George, Claire, and Sylvia welcomed the two of us back with open arms and they had even gone as far as putting an extra bed up in our guest room. The moment Skip and I were alone in the room, I rushed forward and jumped onto one of the beds, sprawling out and rejoicing in the fact that I was lying in a real bed again.<p>

I had a letter waiting for me when I got back. It was from Mary. It had come in a few days before we got back to Aldbourne. I tore open Mary's letter and started to read it.

_Dearest Diana,_

_I have fantastic news, sister! On June seventh, I had my son. His name is Rodger Phillip Holbrook-after our father and his father. I can't wait for you to meet him; he looks just like me, which is to say that he looks just like Father. He is quiet, kind of thoughtful. Oh, how I hope you can com home soon; life around here is not the same without you._

_I pray that all is well overseas. Phillip is reading every newspaper and listening to any radio broadcast, listening out for your name or the name of your company. So when he heard about the jump Easy Company participated in, he immediately told the entire family over Sunday dinner. I bet you can imagine Elizabeth's reaction: she was scared and left the table in a hurry to write to you. Mother was more distant. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I heard her crying for you that night right before Phillip and I left._

I paused and put the letter down for a moment after reading that. All of my life, my mother-Sally McCall-had never cried in front of me. She had always been so poised and sophisticated; the idea of her sheading a tear for me was completely foreign. After composing myself, I went back to the letter.

_While at work, Mrs. Jackson wanted to know how you were doing in New York. For a moment I was confused, but then I remembered that Mother had told her Bridge Club friends that you were in New York instead of actually fighting alongside the men. I set her straight though; I couldn't imagine how unfair it was to you that you were off in Europe risking your skin yet no one at home knew of it. Mrs. Jackson was shocked to say the least._

_I hope that you and all of your comrades are doing alright, and I hope that you would write to me more often! Know that Phillip and I love you and are worried for you. I cannot wait for little Rodger to meet his Auntie Diana. Hopefully, this war will be over soon and you can come home._

_With love, Mary_

I smiled at the thought of Mrs. Jackson's shocked face. I quickly wrote Mary a letter back, telling her about the stress before the jump and some of the events afterwards. Just for the heck of it, I told her about the men I was living with. The letter I ended up writing her was five whole pages, talking about Malarkey, Skip, Guarnere, Toye, Luz, Perconte, and Liebgott. Around the end, I congratulated her on her newborn son, and I tried to imagine what my little nephew was like. When I finished, I mailed the letter off, hoping that it'd get back to her soon.

The Army gave everyone two sets of complete, all-new uniforms, all of our pay (one-hundred-fifty dollars), and a seven day pass. By eight the next morning, we were all on our way to London. Some of the men didn't go though: Winters stayed in Aldbourne to write to families in America, Welsh went to Ireland to visit family, Lipton and Gordon went to Scotland to sight-see. Roe stayed in Aldbourne with that girl from the Red Cross Club-Vera. From what I could see, Roe and Vera were getting to be very close. But Roe was private when it came to his personal life, so he wasn't keen on telling me anything about his romantic life.

I went to London with my usual group of friends. The moment civilians saw our uniforms, they wanted to buy us drinks and meals in order to say thanks. We went into a pub-myself with Malarkey, Skip, Guarnere, Toye, Luz, Perconte, Liebgott, and Buck. We found a large table to the side and we dominated the space we occupied. Some of the civilians looked slightly annoyed with us, but none of them said anything.

"Shut it!" Guarnere yelled as soon as our drinks were in our hands. He stood up by his chair and raised his glass of whiskey. Several of the tables around us stopped eating and talking to listen. "Here's to getting outta Normandy. Here's to all of our guys who didn't make it out. And here's to you sons of bitches sitting here with me! That includes you too, Di." This caused laughter to rise up from our table. Most of the men had adopted Liebgott's nickname for me. We tipped our heads back and drank deeply. The whiskey burned my throat but it felt good.

We hadn't been sitting there for very long when I heard a hauntingly familiar voice. "Diana? Diana McCall?" I turned around in my seat to see Abigail Foote, Mary's best friend from high school. Abigail sucked in her breath sharply when she recognized me and I stood up from the table. Abigail didn't hesitate before pulling me into a tight hug. I hugged her back, relishing in the fact that this was the first time I had seen someone from home in ages.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked, looking down at her dress. She was wearing a nurse's uniform from the Red Cross and I saw a group of Red Cross nurses sitting at a table a little ways away. Abigail's red hair was pinned up neatly and she looked like she had spent a long time on her makeup.

"I volunteered to come to England; to help out." Abigail said, looking at me up and down. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw my ear stump, but she didn't mention it. "Mary told me that you were in Europe but I wasn't sure if I believed her. I tried looking for you while I was in New York."

"Well, you found me," I said. I suddenly realized that my friends behind me were silent, listening to the conversation. I glanced at them and gestured at them to Abigail. "Abigail, this is Joe Liebgott, Donald Malarkey, Skip Muck, Buck Compton, Joe Toye, Bill Guarnere, Frank Perconte, and George Luz."

"It's nice to meet y'all." Abigail said politely. The men nodded and told her the same thing. Abigail turned back to me. "I'll tell Mary that I saw you. It was good to see you, Diana."

"You too," I said right before Abigail went back to her friends. I sat back down at the table between Liebgott and Luz. The men were looking at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to start explaining. "That was my sister's best friend." I said.

"Does she have a sister?" Perconte asked. I reached around Luz to smack Perconte as the other men laughed loudly.


	18. 18: Back in England

We lived in Aldbourne that summer. Although we still had training and exercises to attend to, life there had become a bit more relaxed. I met up with Abigail again before she left for the States. She told me that she was very surprised at the company I kept now. I frowned, confused by what she meant.

"Well, it's not as if I have much of a choice about that," I said. "And as far as men go, they're the best ones I've ever met."

Abigail backtracked. "I didn't mean it like that! I was just surprised by how rugged they all looked." I thought about how my friends looked that night, and I laughed at what we must've looked like to an outsider. Abigail laughed about it too. "They all were pretty handsome, Diana! Are there any you have your eye on?"

I felt my skin turn red. "No," was the immediate response. "I'm just friends with them all." Although I talking about the group as a whole, one face came to mind more than the others.

But Abigail saw my red face. "If you say so," She hadn't believed a word I said. I had a strong feeling that Abigail would tell Mary and Elizabeth about my reaction the second she saw them.

I went with Abigail to the docks the next day. I gave her some letters I had written to Mary and Elizabeth to deliver. "I hope all goes well for you, Diana." Abigail said earnestly. "I'll be praying for you."

"Thank you," I replied, and then Abigail left back home to America. It was only for a brief second, but I wanted to go back with her.

* * *

><p>Replacements arrived from America. At first I didn't mind them that much; some of them were my age. But then after a few of them stopped and stared at me, I got tired of them all really quickly. It wasn't that they were ignorant to the point of annoyance, it also became clear that more than half of these boys would be dead if we had another experience like our experience in Normandy.<p>

We got an announcement at the end of July about another jump that would happen August nineteenth. We were supposed to jump into Chartres and set up roadblocks to cut off supplies and reinforcements for the Germans in Normandy, and to block their escape route. We were shipped off to a Membury airdrome outside of Aldbourne. We were fed steak and eggs, fried chicken, white bread, milk, ice cream.

The replacements were excited, eager, and nervous. I overheard one new group of men talking about all of the ways they were gonna kill Germans. I didn't say anything, just blinked at them and shook my head. They had no idea...

The night before the jump, I stayed awake, not able to sleep. All around me, I could hear the other men tossing and turning in their own beds. I laid on my back, twiddling my thumbs and staring at the ceiling.

"Di?" Malarkey's voice came from right beside me. I turned my head in the direction of his bed and I saw him looking right back at me. I made a noise from deep in my throat. Malarkey asked, "You ready for tomorrow?"

It was a long while before I said, "I don't think so."

First light came all to soon. Everyone started to get out of bed as the sun's light seeped into the room. I hid my body under the blanket and got dressed that way, as I always had. When I was halfway done, I caught Liebgott watching with a thoughtful expression. I locked eyes with him, sensing the same mounting fear. I finished getting dressed and I left the barracks with the rest of the men.

Everyone was about to go find their appropriate planes when Nixon jumped on top of a stack of crates. "Easy Company! Listen up! Patton's Third Army just took Chartres! The jump's canceled!"

There was a brief moment of dead silence before people started to laugh and cheer. I threw up my hands into the air and blessed George Patton and his tankers. I caught sight of men jumping and dancing. That afternoon, we returned to Aldbourne.

On September fourteenth, however, we got word that we were to be apart in the biggest drop in history, three divisions strong. It was to be a daylight landing and a surprise to the Germans. For a second, I imagined what the Germans would feel like when they were in the middle of combat when all of a sudden, paratroopers started dropping from the skies.

One night leading up to the drop, I sat with the others in the barracks. We had formed a sort of semi-circle and some of us were laying down on the bunks or sitting on the floor. I was lying on my stomach, facing the middle of the circle and listening intently to my friends as we all shared stories and talked about the new drop. At some point, Toye pointed out how my hair had grown out to my shoulders again.

"You need it cut?" Liebgott asked, reaching over and pulling on the ends of my hair. I shook my head, shaking his hand off.

"It should be fine." I said. "Besides, our weekend passes no longer depend on it being short anymore." They smirked, remembering Sobel's opinion about the length of my hair. We hadn't seen Sobel since he had been promoted, so we all thought we weren't going to be seeing him again.

This made it a big surprise when Sobel showed up to the airfield right before our drop. I had been standing with Malarkey and Skip as the truck parked right next to us, Sobel sitting in the front seat. My hair hadn't been pulled back yet, so it was hanging freely. Sobel's mean eyes caught sight of me and I quickly exchanged a look with my friends.

"Bye guys," I said quickly before ducking away from them and rushing away from Sobel and the truck. Skip was right behind me, not wanting to stop and chat with our former commander. Poor Malarkey was lassoed into talking with him. Skip and I stopped a few yards away and watched the conversation unfold, Sobel ranting at Malarkey for some reason and Malarkey taking it with a stiff posture.

"I kinda feel bad," I said, not doing a good job of holding my laughter back.

Skip was the same way. "Oh yeah, we're horrible people." That caused the pair of us to laugh and continue moving away from Sobel. The surprise visits didn't stop with Sobel; Popeye finally returned from his butt injury. Though one look at him told me that he wasn't completely healed yet. He was walking with a limp and he kept reaching back to grab his injured butt. During the flight to Holland, he had to stand up, as he was too sore to sit.

But he had come back to his company. He had gone AWOL for us. He was right where he wanted to be.


	19. 19: The Dutch

I launched myself out of the plane, the bright sun temporarily blinding me. I squinted and looked down at the ground, the grassy field coming closer. All around me, my fellow soldiers were also floating gently down to Earth. I glanced out at the horizon, briefly wishing for a few more peaceful minutes in the air before we descended into the madness of battle.

The ground was suddenly right underneath me and I managed to land without getting tangled in my chute. I had just stood up when I heard a loud, "Look out!" I glanced up and ducked down in surprise. One of the replacements had almost landed right on top of me. I shook my head shortly at their form before tightening my helmet and heading off in the direction we were supposed to be going.

I caught up to Guarnere and moved beside him. Guarnere glanced down at me. "Di, weave around. Make sure no replacement got hurt in the drop."

"Yes sir," I replied before breaking forward. On his orders I weaved around the men, glancing around and making sure that no one had any obvious injuries. So far, I didn't see anything. It was a few minutes before Buck hissed at me to get closer to the center of the formation. I nodded and obeyed without question.

In my later years, when I retold this to Elizabeth, she asked if it was odd taking orders from two of my closest friends in the company. I had shrugged and simply stated that it was something that everyone did. We all had jobs to do and orders to act on, and sometimes your best friends were the ones who gave those orders.

Everyone gathered into a tight formation with Winters in front, craning his neck to see what was just over the ridge. I crouched beside Buck, the two of us tensed and waiting for the signal to continue forward. I heard some shaky breathing behind me and I turned around to see a replacement. I couldn't remember his name. He had extreme fear in his whole face. I nodded at him, hoping that some kind of kindness would calm him down a bit. The poor nineteen year old was making enough noise to alert all of Holland that we were there.

Once we discovered it was clear, we moved forward toward the objective. It was the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son. The road we traveled on was part asphalt, part brick, wide enough for two automobiles to pass each other. Like most roads in Holland, it was raised above the surrounding fields, meaning that anything stood out against the horizon.

We weren't moving for very long before we approached Son. Winters called us to a halt as we tried to see if it was safe to enter. But then a resident leaned out of her house's window and waved an orange flag at us. I exchanged a glance with Guarnere as we started to get closer to Son.

The residents of Son were waiting for us as we entered the town. They waved orange flags at us and it seemed that each store had samples of their food and drink waiting for us. One elderly man rushed up to me, shouting, "_Dank u, jongeman!" _He stopped short when he got closer however, probably noticing that I was a woman. But instead of sputtering and looking blank, he just smiled widely and said, "_Dank u, jongedame._" He then gave me a small cup of beer.

Malarkey and Skip caught up to me and they were given cups of beer as well. I quickly drank mine and another one somehow appeared in my other hand from another bartender. I found myself smirking slightly as I drank that cup as well.

Liebgott joined me and we moved through the thick crowd together. A Dutch lady stopped us to shove some Mason jars of preserved peaches into our hands. She took one look at the extreme height difference between me and Liebgott and she figured out that I was a woman really fast. She took my free hand in hers and she smiled. "_God zegene u, missen._"

I didn't understand what she said, and I never got the chance to figure it out. But I smiled back at her and nodded, able to understand the gratitude that she was implying.

"Keep moving!" Nixon's voice came from up ahead. I gave the woman one last nod before following Liebgott through the crowd. It took several minutes before the entire company caught up and was ready to move again.

As we left the town, I stayed beside Liebgott. He had opened the Mason jar and was now picking at the preserved peaches. He ate some and his eyebrows raised for a moment before actually smiling at the taste. I blinked at him. "I take it as the peaches are good?" I asked.

Liebgott nodded. "Want some?" He held the jar out for me. I was tempted to say no, but there was a slight hunger poking at my stomach. I reached my thumb and forefinger into the jar and pulled out a tiny clump of peaches. The sticky material stuck together. I slid them into my mouth and instantly there was an explosion of sweet flavor. I made a deep noise from the top of my throat and I grabbed Liebgott's wrist, pulling the jar back to me.

He laughed at me as I got more peaches. Liebgott ate some more before glancing over at where the commanding officers were marching. He put the lid back on the jar and swung his bag around to put them away. "Don't want these to be taken." He said, almost to himself.

"Just don't forget to save some for me," I said, licking the last of the juice off of my fingers. Liebgott laughed again.

"Yes ma'am,"

We continued moving down the road, a brief skirmish breaking out from a German rear guard. Luckily, no one got severely injured. One man got a light burn from a bit of shrapnel, but Roe managed to get him patched up just fine. We continued down the road, finding a farmhouse. Sink ordered a halt for the night. The man who ran the farm was more than happy to host us for the night.

Inside the barn, there was a sort of fight for the softest pile of hay. Two Dog men actually started punching each other for a spot in the hayloft. Their commander, Speirs, quickly put an end to the fight and both men were forced to spend the night outside. Even out there, men were trying to sleep in haystacks and the softest piece of grass.

I found a tiny corner of the barn that hadn't been claimed yet. I moved fast before jumping into the pile of hay. The straws of hay poked into my shoulders and back, making it hard to get completely comfortable. I had just closed my eyes when I heard heavy footsteps coming towards me. I opened my eyes to see Liebgott sitting down in the hay beside me. He had his jar of peaches out already.

"I recall you wanting some more," Liebgott said. I smiled up at him, earning a smile in return. He opened the jar and held the jar out for me. I pinched off some more preserved peaches and popped the sweet treat into my mouth. "What do you think she put in this to make it taste like this?" Liebgott asked. He said it in a way that didn't really call for an answer.

"I think it usually depends on how you want them made," I said, thinking about how my family's maid used to preserve fruits. "I taste honey with these."

"Honey and cinnamon," Liebgott added, mentioning the other ingredient I had been thinking of. I nodded in agreement, leaning back and taking some more from the jar. "You tired?"

I shrugged slightly. "Just a tad," Liebgott leaned back as well, setting the jar (still half-full with preserved peaches smothered with honey and cinnamon syrup) on his chest. We laid side by side for a while, neither of us speaking. I stared up at the ceiling, which was dimly lit.

We suddenly heard the Dutch language being spoken by women. I sat up straight in the pile of hay, Liebgott following suit, to see a group of five Dutch women wandering around the men. I saw that they were carrying metal tins in their hands. I pointed these out to Liebgott, "What's in there?"

"Whatever it is, it got cleared by the guys outside," Liebgott said. One of the ladies got close to us and she smiled broadly at the pair of us. She opened the metal tin and she pulled out some homemade cookies. She handed two to Liebgott, and three to me. Then she smiled and said, "_Ik bewonder je beide._"

"Thank you," I said, nodding up at her. Liebgott echoed me and the woman gave us a small curtsy before wandering off to deliver more cookies. I glanced at Liebgott, "You don't speak Dutch, d'you?"

"I wish I did now," Liebgott said before shoving a cookie into his mouth. I rolled my eyes at him and leaned back into the hay, nibbling on the small gift the Dutch lady had given me.

I made up my mind in that moment that I liked the Dutch much more than I liked the English or French.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hey everyone! Sorry for not updating as much as I usually do, my schedule got busier as the holidays got closer so I didn't have any time to write. But I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I'd also like to wish everyone a late happy holiday; I hope you all had a lovely few days! :) **

**T****ranslations:**

**Dank u, jongeman! - Thank you, young man!**

**Dank u, jongedame. - Thank you, young lady.**

**God zegene u, missen. - God bless you, miss.**

**Ik bewonder je beide. - I admire you both.**


	20. 20: Eindhoven

The next morning, we headed out to the next Dutch town of Eindhoven on our map. The Germans had ran from the town almost as soon as they heard about us showing up, liberating the people who lived there. When we arrived, townspeople crowded us and waved orange flags everywhere I looked.

Like most of the other Dutch people we had encountered, they didn't really seem to care when they saw that I was a woman in a company of men. In fact, it seemed to make me more popular with them. One girl who looked to be eighteen years old pulled me over to the sidewalk and started speaking to me in broken English.

"What your name?" She asked, her accent very thick.

"Diana McCall," I replied. She smiled broadly at me and told me that her name was Agnes. Several years later, on my last visit to Holland, I walked down this street again and was greeted by Agnes once more. Having learned more English, she would tell me that she wanted to know my name because she had been pregnant when Easy Company marched through. Agnes would tell me that she decided back then that if she had a daughter, she wanted a daughter to be named after an American.

"Your hair," Agnes said, pointing up at my helmet. Reluctantly, I removed my helmet, revealing the small bump of ponytail I had. Agnes snorted with kind laughter at the sight of it and took down the ponytail. I tensed up but allowed her to do so. Agnes ran her fingers through my hair and before I realized what she was doing, she had set up two braids on either side of my head that gathered into a cleaner looking ponytail.

"Thank you," I said, smiling at her. Agnes smiled broadly right back and placed her hands on her heart.

"Thank _you_," She repeated.

I hadn't even put my helmet back on my head when a Dutch man snatched it from my hands. I opened my mouth to ask him to return it, but he leaned forward and kissed me hard before I could even react. He was off of me almost immediately afterwards and he tossed the helmet back to me. I wiped my mouth as he ran away. I glanced around at the crowd, and saw that I wasn't the only one to get kissed.

Malarkey was getting kissed any where on his face by the same girl; my friend wasn't exactly trying hard to get her off of him either. Skip, always loyal to Faye, was moving faster than Malarkey, trying not to stop for these Dutch girls. Talbert had sat down at a table, a girl sitting on his lap. They seemed to be connected at the mouth. I blinked and shook my head as a fresh jar of treats was shoved into my hands. I looked up at the older man who gave the jar to me and nodded. He replied by grapping my face and kissing my forehead.

After several minutes of struggling to navigate the crowd, I finally found Liebgott. He had his back pressed against a building wall, and three Dutch girls were standing on any side of him that they could reach. The two girls on either side of him were draped on his arms while the girl in front of him was leaning not-so-casually into his space. I couldn't make out what was being said, but that didn't stop the immediate feeling of hostility I felt deep inside of me when I saw those girls all over Liebgott.

Luz moved over to stand beside me and followed my gaze. I saw that he had red lipstick marks dotting both sides of his face. Luz laughed at Liebgott's situation. "Hey Lieb! C'mon, we're moving!" Luz shouted before turning back to me. "Just keep 'im moving, Di." He patted me hard on the back and continued on through the crowd. I stared after him, not entirely sure what he meant.

Liebgott detangled himself from those girls, smiling and laughing about it. I narrowed my eyes and started down the road without him. "Di, wait up!" Liebgott shouted after me. Without meaning to, I smirked and kept moving, more slowly this time.

A Dutch man suddenly walked right up to me, asking how my day was. Before I got the chance to answer, he had already pressed his mouth against mine. The first guy who did wasn't as aggressive as this one, so this was the one that I shoved off of me. I wiped my mouth aggressively, and the Dutch man said something in his own language that did not sound like a compliment. He stalked off.

Liebgott finally caught up to me and watched the man leave. Apparently, he had seen the whole thing. "You want me to beat him up for you?" Liebgott asked.

I shook my head. "I can beat up my own assholes, thank you." Liebgott smiled at my answer and we started back down the street together. I pulled out the jar of preserved pears from my bag. "Oh, I got this."

He pulled out another jar filled with a mix of what looked like wild berries. "I think we're gonna be eating these for a while." I nodded in agreement as yet another jar was put into my free hand. The elderly lady who gave it to me spoke in rapid Dutch and then left. This jar was filled with an amber liquid that looked to be alcohol.

Screams came from up ahead. Liebgott and I exchanged one look before heading towards the sound. I could see other soldiers doing the same. We got to the edge of the crowd, but I was too short to see anything. Liebgott understood my dilemma without having to hear me say it and grabbed my hand, pulling me to a lamppost with a raised pedestal. I climbed onto that while Liebgott stood in front of me, just in case I fell.

I could finally see what the screaming was about, and I immediately wished that I hadn't seen.

Women, almost seeming at random, were being yanked and dragged into a large crowd of men. The men and women dragging them there were screaming with fury and disgust on every inch of their faces. When the girls were taken out of the mass of people, they looked like they were beaten and they had Swastikas drawn onto their foreheads. Then a woman would come up behind them and cut off all of their hair.

"Holy shit," I muttered, horrified at the act I was witnessing. Liebgott nodded in agreement. I hopped down from the lamppost and tapped the shoulder of the nearest civilian. He turned around, looking happy to see me. I pointed to the crowd, "What's happening over there?" I asked.

He gave me a quick nod of understanding. "They slept with Germans while they were here."

"That's it?"

He nodded again and kissed my forehead before giving me a jug of fresh milk. I blinked and turned back to Liebgott, who had heard the whole thing. We suddenly heard Nixon's voice to keep moving, telling us that he was probably close by. Without another word, I put the jug into my bag and Liebgott and I headed towards the sound of Nixon's voice.


End file.
